Former KLA leaders case ready for trial until end

On November 4th, starting at 13:30, at the Specialised Chambers of Kosovo in The Hague, the next feasibility session will be held in the case against Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselin, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi.

In this process, in the announcement published by Specialised Chambers, it is confirmed that in the “Thaci and others”, the Administrative Office submitted the ninth report on the victims' participation on October 20th.

“In the report, the Office of Victims Attendance recommends that 11 of the 19 predeceivers of requests be accepted as victims in the process”, the Office for Media Specialised Chambers states.

Thus, according to the Office of Association of Victims, the crimes they claim to have suffered coincide with the countries and times mentioned in Aktakuza.

“Victime speak Albanian and/or Serbian and reside in different states. These include direct and indirect victims. Direct victims show that they have suffered damage because of illegal ban, cruel treatment and/or torture at one of the detention sites mentioned in the confirmed indictment”, the Specialised Chambers explain, RTKlive reports.

Given the official announcement, indirect victims claim they have suffered damage as a result of persecution, illegal ban, cruel treatment, torture, forced extinction and/or unlawful murder of a family member.

“The office of the victims' participation estimated that all victims have suffered crimes similar to those allegedly committed by the same leadership in the matter {Tac and others”.

As a result, the Victims Attendance Office recommended that the other 11 victims be included in the existing 32 victims participating in the issue and represented by the same victim defender”.

The Association of Victims Office further found that, as in the case of the existing group of participating victims, the 11 predeceivers and requests should be considered especially vulnerable as they still suffer from trauma and express fear and concern for their safety and their families if their identity becomes known.

The presiding procedure judge has scheduled the next conference on the performance of this court case for next Friday, November 4th, 2022, at 13:30.

Among the points to be discussed, as suggested in the order to set the date of the conference, include the process of extracting materials, lists of witnesses, and conducting defence investigations.

Towards former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, former head of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, Kadri Veselin, former member of the KLA General Staff, Rexhep Selimi and former KLA spokeswoman Jakup Krasniqi burden charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Since November 2020 they have been in custody at The Hague and have been declared innocent of charges weighing on them.