4 hours agoThaci's and others' lawyers seek witness list, sir. The SP won't give it up.
Periskopi(5 years ago)
(5 years ago)The defence lawyers of former KLA leaders and the Specialised Prosecutor's Office have not been hired at today's pretrial session for the latter to do and hand over a list of witnesses who think to be using in the trial of Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselin, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi. Luka Misethic, lawyer of the former president [...]
Luka Misetic, lawyer for former Kosovo president Hashim Thaci, said the prosecution should give them this list so that defence teams can prepare for the trial.
Which witnesses he calls to the judgment and who won't call. We have witnesses the SPS has received a statement and I think they will testify. We need to set priorities in our preparations, and we do so by knowing which witnesses will testify in the hall. Therefore, we demand that the Prosecutor make a list of”, said lawyer Misethic.
David Young, Rexhep Selim's lawyer, as well as the defenders of Kadri Veselin and Jakup Krasniqi agreed.
I would simply say that we support the request filed by Mr. Thaci”, said Nick Kaufman, the lawyer of Kadri Wessel.
While a prosecutor from the Special Prosecutor's Office said the former KLA officials' request is “outside context”.
This request from the defence is completely out of context and regardless of the specifics of our” court case, she said.
The concept of a preliminary list of witnesses is an element that seems to have taken the defense in a case filed by the International Criminal Court. The list of witnesses is published under very specific circumstances, with very strict instructions. We're not under any circumstances. This is not the situation we see in our process”, the prosecutor said.
She added that the prosecution would reveal the witness materials it will use in the trial.
In response, lawyer Luka Misetic said that “I see no reason why the prosecution is so hard to do so (list).
“Why is so many sources required to make such a list? We see that they have produced material, but they do not tell us who will come to testify and who will not bear witness. Until they give us a good reason why they don't give us this list, we'll keep looking for it”, the American-Croatian lawyer said.
