Special Court Urged to Avoid Private Editors and Sessions

In the trial process against former Kosovo Liberation Army member Salih Mustafa, who has started in mid-September 2021 so far, 13 witnesses of the Specialised Prosecutor's Office have been heard.

Of them, ten have testified under security protection measures, whose identity has not been disclosed to the public, and these sessions have been largely private and editing.

Amer Alija co-ordinator at the Fund for Humanitarian Law in Kosovo tells Kosovo that editing and frequent closing of the sessions make it difficult for monitors to understand at the end if there is enough evidence for a merit decision.

We understand that closing sessions and editing sessions is due to the anonymity and safety of witnesses not to reveal identity, but on the other hand the public, and the monitors, and the media have little trouble understanding what's really going on in the trial, because if 70% of the sessions are being edited then it's been a little difficult for the monitors, especially for secular monitors to understand if there's enough evidence for a merit” decision, Ali says.

And at the Kosovo Institute for Justice, they estimate that the principle of publicity should be respected so that judgments can be transparent.

Medina Kadriu from this institute adds that it also considers the protection of witnesses, victims and protection of confidential information extremely important.

While the Kosovo Institute for Justice considers it extremely important to protect witness identity, victims as well as protection of confidential information, we also assess that the principle of publicity must be applied so that the judgments can be more transparent because when the judgment is transparent then this could also be a guarantee for the development of a regular judicial procedure. So we call on as many of the frequent closures of sessions as possible so that the public will be fully informed of what is going on in these trials”, Kadriu says.

On the other hand, Kosovo Information and Public Communication Unit leader Angela Greep in a response to Kosova Prees says that during private sessions the public cannot attend, the accused and defence can participate in the procedure.

The private hearings and editings in the court's public documents are ordered by the judges, in most cases to protect witnesses or other persons involved in the procedure. It is important to keep in mind that during private sessions, even though the public cannot follow them, the accused and the defence may attend and participate in the procedure as usual. It is also important to consider that many things that are confidential at a stage become public later. In light of the principle of publicity, confidential files are regularly examined and whenever the reason for justifying their confidential classification is no longer available, they are re-classified as public versions or published as public edited versions”, said the response given by Greep.

After the SPS issue is closed, court hearings against Mustaf are expected to continue with the hearing of defence witnesses.

The court is expected to set the date for holding the defence preparedial conference and decide on procedures and the number of people who will give a witness.

The Act against Mustafa has been confirmed on June 12, 2020, as he was arrested on September 24th last year, on a war crimes claim.

The trial of Salih Mustafa began on September 15th in 2021 and is the first trial trial in the Special Court.

He is standing at The Hague's detention centre, while in his statement to the court, Salih Mustafa has been declared innocent.