Special Court Says Won't Judge Albanians Only

Since the majority of Kosovo Assembly deputies gave votes for its founding, the Special Court has been named one-ethnic and has been accused of discriminating Albanians.

But, by the Special, they have told Gazeta Express that all crimes against humanity, war crimes and other crimes committed between January 1998 and December 2000, regardless of who was their author.

The specialised “Chambers have jurisdiction over crimes against humanity, war crimes and other crimes under Kosovo law; allegedly committed between January 1998 and December 2000; which had been committed or started in Kosovo; and where the author or victim was from Kosovo or the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia then”, Special Court spokesman Michael Doyle has said.

Even the Law for Specialised Chambers and the Special Prosecutor's Office envisions that, under the jurisdiction of the Special Court, crimes with victims or authors of various former Yugoslavia ethnicities, including Albanians, Serbs, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Bosniaks and Slovenians.

The Specialized Chambers have jurisdiction over physical persons according to the provisions of this law. In line with the jurisdiction of active and passive personality jurisdiction of Kosovo courts under applicable criminal laws that have been in force between January 1st 1998 and December 31st 2000, and besides their pre-arranged territorial jurisdiction in Article 8, specialised chambers have jurisdiction over Kosovo citizenship persons/ IRJ or persons who committed crimes under their jurisdiction hurt against persons with Kosovo citizenship/ IRJS wherever those crimes have been committed, Article 9 of this law says.

Special Court Speaker: Anyone who committed crimes despite ethnicity will be tried

Three years ago, Special Court President Ekaterina Trendafilova had denied that this court would judge only Albanians.

There is no basis in the law. I tell them why: because the law clearly emphasizes ítally, there is no indication that investigations and processes will have to do with just one citizenship, one ethnicity or nationality. It's the opposite. The law says, and I was very happy to read this because I decided more easily than I would finish my career at an institution that would be discriminated against the law emphasizes that anyone who committed crimes under our jurisdiction in the territory where crime was committed in certain periods will be responsible. And also, each despite the ethnicity of citizenship that has committed crimes against the citizens of Kosovo and those of the former Yugoslavia, will be held responsible for”, Trandafilova had declared at Rubikon.

“Pictically” had said Trendafilova when he was asked whether before the Special Court they would appear charged with other ethnicities, such as Serbs, Turks and Gorani.

The “I guess that's when good work has been done, because the law said that anyone who committed crimes, despite citizenship ethnicity, which belonged to Kosovo citizens, would be tried”, Trendafilova said on November 23rd of 2017.

“No Serb will be charged”

Despite some of them voting on their own, most politicians in Kosovo have not believed and do not believe that the Special Court will deal with the crimes committed by Serbs in Kosovo.

Former political chief of The KLA and former Kosovo president Hashim Thaci, who is now subject to this court, on an organised panel in October 2017 with the “public perception of the Kosovo Special Court: risks and opportunities”, had said no Serbs would be tried in this court.

We know and that's correct. He will handle alleged crimes committed by KLA soldiers. Albanians do not trust this court, while Serbs fully believe because they are informed of the charges and that no Serb will be charged. This court is one-ethnic”, Thaci had declared.

Even the former spokeswoman. The KLA and former Kosovo Prime Minister Jakup Krasniqi, who is also in the group of indictees, had named the Special Court as unethnic and unprecedented in international justice.

If there's something in the world, or if there's something like this... I'm saying this in view of the international practice of establishing similar courts. Such a court has been held in Rome, but such a court of unethnic prosecution does not know it ever existed in the practice of international justice”, Krasniqi had said of “Economics Online” on December 15th, 2019.

An ethnic and unfair one had named the Special as the chairman of the Vetevendosje Movement (LVV), Albin Kurti.

The Special Court for Vetevendosje will always be unfair and one-ethnic. But she was voted by ignorant politicians. In Kosovo there should be courts condemning crimes in peace such as corruption”, Kurti said on January 15th of 2019, on the 20th anniversary of the Recak massacre.

From Serbia they say they're assisting the Special Court with files against KLA

Entrusted that the Special Court will judge anyone other than Albanians is also in Serbia.

As such, former Serbian journalist and politician Milovan Drescu on Monday in a presentation on Serbian television “TV Happy” has said the Special Court is being served with information from Serbia.

He said he gave Specials <x0-doctors for the KLA's illegal prisons”. Drescu said he owns the list of documents and facts he has given to the Special Court, and of them said charges were filed against Albanians.

Based on what happens, according to the locations, according to what I'm seeing is the prioritity of the Special Prosecutor (the illegal detentions, arrests, mistreatment...), I see there's a lot of information we've been given, for example. Illegal prisons, out of 159 locations, from them to Albania, have already received 15 on the territory of Kosovo and two in Albania, which means that this is not yet finished. I have a list of what we've given them (special prosecutor) and I see that almost all the data is in the indictment, I'm talking about the events and locations that were taken”, Drescu said, adding that they've shown the Special Court “the complete structure of the KLA”.

In September, Drexun had said that he had received gratitude from the specialised prosecutor, David Schwendiman, for helping the Specialised Prosecutor's Office in the case.

I have since phase one by Mr. Schwediman received gratitude, even by hand wrote the special gratitude, which is not common, because we have clearly helped him greatly, at least at that initial stage, that they separate trees from the mountain, to see in which directions they move”, he stated.

Drescu had zealously served former president of Serbia and former Supreme Commander of the Serbian Armed Forces who committed genocide in Kosovo and Bosnia, Slobodan Milosevic, who was sentenced to 40 years in prison by The Hague International Criminal Tribunal for Crimes in the former Yugoslavia.

So far, Special Court is judging Albanians only

The first seven special indictees -- five of them with confirmed charges -- are Albanians, former political and military leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UÇK).

Former superior of The KLA, Salih Mustafa, was the first of former KLA members to be arrested and transferred to Special Court custody on 24 September. He is accused of a series of acts described as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Two days later the two former KLA OVL leaders, Chairman Hysni Gucati and the deputy chairman of this organisation, Nasim Haradinaj, were also arrested. Although there is still no accusation about them, they are accused of obstruction in the administration of justice, fear of witnesses, revenge, and violation of the secret procedure.

The last ones to be arrested and sent to The Hague are the four former political and military leaders of the KLA, former President Hashim Thaci, former leaders Kadri Veselin and Jakup Krasniqi, as well as the head of the Vetevendosje Movement Parliamentary Group (LVV), Rexhep Selimi.

On November 4th, former spokeswoman KLA, Jakup Krasniqi was arrested and sent to special custody. To the same destination, on a military plane, former war associates Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselini and Rexhep Selimi left the following day.

The arrests came after a Special Court preliminary procedure judge had confirmed the charges against four former KLA leaders. They are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The incident holds Thaci, Veselin, Krasniqi and Selimi responsible for a series of crimes allegedly committed at several detention centres during 1998-1999. The specialized prosecutor accuses them of being or should be aware of such crimes.

On August 3rd 2015, by majority of votes, Kosovo Assembly deputies had voted the constitutional changes that would enable the establishment of specialised rooms known as the Special Court. After a long session, 82 deputies had voted for the establishment of the Special Court, five had opposed, while one had abstained.