Special Court spokeswoman: We're doing the job within our mandate.

Bena declined to comment on the initiative, which has strained the reports between Kosovo institutions' leaders and international diplomats but has explained the work and challenges this court will face.

DNK: Mrs. Benes, how do you assess this latest initiative taken by several parliamentary groups in Kosovo to abolish the Law on Specialised Chambers? This initiative against its epilogue, would you consider the initiative to promote fear, threaten or even endanger the potential witnesses of this court?

Avis Benes: As we have repeated several times, we as the Specialised Chamber of Kosovo, we are the judicial institution and we have no comment on political developments, including the latter. Of course, we follow these and are aware of them, but as a judicial institution we are focused on implementing our mandate in accordance with the approved law and constitutional amendments.

DNK: Keeping in mind that in earlier court processes in Kosovo, which were handled by EULEX and local judicial institutions in war crimes cases or what nature the accused were high profile persons directly influenced by witnesses, in some cases including the suspicious death of witnesses. How do you solve this problem considering that the past tells us that when it comes to witness protection there have been failures by local and international institutions?

Avis Benes: I can only speak theoretically because we are not aware of the details of the cases of concrete witnesses.
Being a judicial institution and part of the entire court system, we are well aware of the importance of witness protection.
In fact, theoretically and generally, I can talk to you about the legal framework and what can be expected, in the law mentioned earlier, that offers the protection of victims and witnesses.
This includes security, well-being, dignity and privacy, as well as this should be done on the highest standards of international criminal justice.
Within our Special Chambers office, there is a special unit for witness protection and support, and its goal is to provide adequate protection for witnesses who may be at risk as a result of their testimony, but not only those but other people who may be in danger of testimony given by witnesses.
There are some measures that can be included in this defence and assistance team, but are not only exclusive measures, there may be several arrangements offered under the Kosovo law.
This may include keeping the camera procedure, presenting testimony via electronics, or some other special form, as well as general protection of identity.
In addition, this law requires specifically from the Specialised Chambers to ensure protection of vulnerable witnesses, including witnesses who can exhibit gender-based violence or children.
There are also measures that judges can specify, as protected judicial measures, and some of these may be the use of nicknames, facial coverage, and voice change, erasing or concealing identifying information, video-inline witnessing, and a number of other measures.
For all those who want to know more about this, this issue is in advance in the law, and special attention has been paid to this on the part of judges at the time they were being compiled.
There are some measures that can be included in this defence and assistance team, but are not only exclusive measures, there may be several arrangements offered under the Kosovo law.
This may include keeping the camera procedure, presenting testimony via electronics, or some other special form, as well as general protection of identity.
In addition, this law specifically requires specialised rooms to ensure protection of vulnerable witnesses, including witnesses who can show gender-based violence or children.
There are also some measures that judges can specify, as protected judicial measures, and some of these may be the use of nicknames, facial coverage, and voice change, erasing or hiding identification information, video-line witnessing, and a number of other measures.
For all who want to know more about this, this subject is discussed in detail in the Law and has also been addressed with special attention by the judges in the Procedure and Tests Rule. Displacement in the Netherlands also helps ensure better protection for witnesses, victims and other people who can interact with Special Chambers.

DNK: Mrs. Bennes, if I might add here, you talked about the legal measures and the proper institutions you've created to ensure witness protection, I'm interested to know that approach to protecting witnesses who are not only endangered by physical assaults but also by political pressures or political attacks if we can call it that?

Avis Benes: I would just summarize what I said earlier, which is generally one thing we're dealing with as well as lessons learned from other cases and other courts will also be taken into account.

DNK: Do you think legal measures will be taken against those who publicly investigate witnesses?

Avis Benes: It's not up to me to speculate about what's going to happen or not, but I can only repeat that we're taking this matter very seriously.

DNK: When will the court begin with the first judgments?

Benes: As most of the population is aware, the Spicilised Chambers are fully functional legally since the introduction of the Procedures and Evidences that took place in July 2017, that is, last year, the Specialised Chambers are willing to accept any documents, including the accusations.
Perhaps it is important to check for all of them that they are not very clear that the Specialised Chambers and Prosecutor's Office are two institutions fully separate and independent. Although they are part of the same law, they are separate and independent institutions.
DNK: We talked about political issues taking place in Parliament with the initiative to abolish the Special Chambers Law. Are you conveying these developments, and do you have any comment on these developments or this initiative?

Benes: It seems that I answered this question to your previous question that yes, we are very carefully conveying all that is happening, absolutely yes, but we are first of all a judicial institution and this is our mandate and we are focused only on carrying out our mandate as provided by law and constitutional amendments.