Ends session against former OVL leaders- KLA, defence requires 20 July deadline for handover of preliminary file

Lawyer Jonathan Elystan Rees said the indictment against Gucat and Haradinaj is not limited to just three media conferences that former KLA leaders had held, but included a six-month period, which he said would be investigated as a whole.

“We intend to deposit a preliminary case file on the part of the defence, which we think will be worth the juro. The deadline we propose is less than four months after the confirmation given by the SPS to the date to prepare their own follow-up file. We demand a 20 July 2021 deadline as the date for depositing the preliminary defence file, always provided the April 9th due to be respected by the SPS. We've made it clear from the beginning that we intend to investigate the question of how those three material packages came to OVL-UCK headquarters. At this moment the ZPS has not presented evidence in this context, but we want to investigate this feature”, he said.

And to conduct the investigation, lawyers say they are facing difficulties because of anti-Condavid measures.

Haradinaj's lawyer, Toby Cadman, has been cancelled on flights to Kosovo 24 hours before the time was scheduled to take place.

From these 379 materials that have been handed over to us and the prosecution says that 122 have already been handed over to us, we have to check this job, it would help us if it would inform us whether there are any separate packages that will be handed over to us, as far as the recordings are concerned, translation of translations of transcripts are correct, we cannot rely solely on the word of the prosecutor, any language has its own characteristics and dialects, and we cannot accept that the transliteration is stated by the speaker,<> he said.

But according to prosecutor Valeria Bolici said the accused is charged with crimes allegedly committed through their appearances at press conferences, so defence preparation cannot be limited to pandemics.

“Under specific circumstances in this case where the indictment claims the accused committed crimes through their statements or public appearances, then defence preparation cannot be limited to the pandemic. In this regard, the proposed deadline for preempting the defence file appears to disagree with the need for an accelerated development of the” judicial process, she said.

At today's conference on the performance of the prosecution case and defence have also discussed points of reconciliation on issues of law and fact.

Procuro Bocilia has declared that the Specialised Prosecutor's Office will present the points of reconciliation on matters of law and fact by 12 March, but defence has said they cannot respect this timeline.

The defence has declared they cannot complete their preparations until the extraction of all material is complete.

At today's conference lawyers have expressed their concerns about, as they said, contemptuous approach by the prosecution, statements that have been rejected by the prosecution.

At today's conference of The Hague-based Specialised Chambers has also been discussed in defence investigations of what Gucatt's lawyer has said to have received about 3 thousand pages of material since January 4th and that they have not all been classified, adding that there are 100 hours of recorded video material.

For all translations, recordings and transcripts, Haradinaj's lawyer has stated they must verify whether they are correct.

Former heads of the UCK War Veterans' Organisation Hysni Gucati and Nasim Haradinaj are charged with criminal acts against administration of justice, precisely for obstructing official persons in performing official duties, fearing witnesses, revenge and violating the secret of the procedure.

After appearing at media conferences, claiming that material allegedly derived from the Special Court has been achieved in their offices, they were arrested on 25 November 2020 and held in custody at The Hague.