Court of Appeals panel partially approves Veselin, Selimi and Krasniqi appeals regarding detention

This panel has approved an appeal reason for each accused and turned the case behind judges of the preliminary procedure for further assessment, if the measures proposed by the detainees or any other condition that the pre-trial judge identifies as necessary could reduce the identified risks and effectively be implemented by Kosovo police.

Meanwhile, other points of complaint have been dropped for the three accused, reports the “Bet on Justice”.

According to the decisions, the panel finds that if the pre-procedure judge considers, and as he did, that the response by the Kosovo Police was not sufficiently satisfactory, then he should have asked the Police Director to get the detailed answer he found missing, especially since he was invited to do so specifically from the defenders of the accused, and the Police Director's response implies Kosovo Police's ability to implement the conditions.

“Paneli recalls that carrying out such an investigation would fall into the disrepute competencies given to the Pre-emptive Procedure Judge in line with Article 39 (13) of the Law on cases related to detention, depending on the circumstances of the case. 1 panel also notes that the Pre-Procedure Judge has given no reason not to order the Police Director to give a detailed answer, despite acknowledging the need for”, it says in decisions.

This panel has found that the pre-procedure judge has erred by not doing so, that this information would have put him in a position to assess whether Kosovo Police can effectively implement these measures, including those he suggested, such as monitoring visits.

According to them, the most accurate information of this kind would give the preliminary judge a more complete and solid actual basis to assess the feasibility of these conditions, of course, without predicting the outcome of the final determination on these issues.

Otherwise, in their first appearances on November 9th, Hashim Thaci's Jakup Krasniqi has pleaded innocent to the charges they are being charged with.

Wessel has been declared in his presentation on November 10th, as has Selimi on November 11th.

The incident against Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselin, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi is confirmed on October 26, 2020.

According to the prosecution, at least between March 1998 and September 1999, Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselini, Rexhep Selimi, Jakup Krasniqi and other members of the joint criminal enterprise had the common goal of securing and exercising control over all of Kosovo through methods involving intimidation, mistreatment, violence and the unlawful elimination of those considered opponents.

“Set up these opponents included persons who were, or who were considered to have been: (a) collaborators or forces, officials or state institutions of RFJ, or who (b) otherwise did not support the purposes or methods of the KLA and later QPK, among whom persons linked to the LDK and Serbs, Roma and persons of other nationalities (joinly, non-combatorsors). This common goal included crimes of persecution, imprisonment, arrest and arbitrary or illegal arrest, other inhumane acts, cruel treatment, torture, murder and forced disappearance of persons”, the indictment said.

In addition, Azem Syla, Lahi Brahimaj, Fatmir Limaj, Sylejman Selimi, Rrustem Mustafa, Shukri Buja, Latif Gashi and Sabit Geci are also mentioned.

According to the indictment, the accused along with other KLA leaders contributed to achieving the common goal.

“As an alternative, some or all of these individuals were not members of the joint criminal enterprise, but were used by members of the joint criminal enterprise to commit crimes for the realisation of the common goal (with members of the NKP, jointly members and NKP instruments)”, says the accusation act.

Note: The individuals mentioned in this article are considered innocent unless the court finds them guilty of decision of form.