The defence of former KLA leaders seeks to know whether the prosecutor's extenuating materials are based on Serbs

On May 20th in the Specialised Chambers, the 12th status session is being held in the case of former KLA leaders: Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselini, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi, who are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the SPS.

Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci's lawyer, Gregory Kehoe, said the SPS has office in Belgrade and asked this institution to show which excusive materials it received from Serbia.

“All documents issued by Serbs should give us”, he requested.

The SPS said it has so far extracted over 5,500 excusive materials and that it is doing so as soon as it can.

But lawyers mentioned several cases when materials the SPS provided in 2015 are now being drawn to the defence side. This, according to them, is dragging the process.

Media reports during the hearing were cited that US Senator Dick Marty was at the centre of a plot to murder from Serbian secret services, which have wanted to blame Kosovo Albanians.

Wessel's lawyer, Ben Emmerson, claimed that Serbian secret services even at The Hague Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia have intervened in the testimony, changing them and having witnessed.

Defence lawyers said they want to know if taking material from Serbia will violate the credibility of the Specialised Chambers.

What are former KLA leaders charged with?

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.

According to the initial indictment, Thaci, Veselin, Krasniqi and Selimi are suspected of criminal acts dealing with war crimes: illegal or arbitrary bans, cruel treatment, torture and unlawful murder, and crimes against humanity -- imprisonment, other inhumane acts, forced extinction of persons and persecution, which, according to Specialised Chambers, were committed between March 1998 and September 1999.

The crimes allegedly were committed in several Kosovo locations and in northern Albania.

On May 10th, the Specialised Prosecutor has presented three categories of changes in the indictment against Thaci and other former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

According to the amended version of the indictment, in the villages of Budakova and Semtish in Suhareka, it is suspected that between June 4th 1998 and September 1998, at least 12 persons were detained at the detention centre.