Thaci's defence filed a motion against new war crimes charges: They Have Bugs

Hashim Thaci's defence has filed a motion against new war crimes charges in Semetisht and Budakov, claiming they have defects.

In the defence paper, the new charges confirmed by the preliminary procedure judge on April 22nd 2022 are said to be flawed due to a lack of specifics and significant errors in the declaration.

The defence has demanded that the Specialised Prosecutor's Office (ZPS) be commanded to provide a greater specificity for the behaviour it claims on Thaci's part, in the event of its failure, that the SPS is commanded to reduce, tighten or drop the charges.

The “is set forth, in accordance with international jurisdiction, that when shortcomings in the indictment appear in the preliminary phase of the trial, the ZPS cannot refrain from changing the indictment by arguing that it will correct all shortcomings through material support or after the indictment”, the defence motion says.

According to defence, it is the SPS's responsibility to inform Thaci of its case.

“He should not be required to process it by uniting much edited schema, supporting material or preliminary file to bring them together. This would illegally shift the burden on Thaci, violating his right judgment rights under Article 21 of Law, Article 30 and 31 of the Constitution of Kosovo and Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It will also take more time to prepare his defence if he must join the case against him”, the defence said.

The defense also says that the identity of direct authors has been very widely defined.

“Determining the identity of members of the NKP who have directly committed the crimes charged in paragraphs 68, 105, 157, 93 and 174 of the new Act is inseparably unclear. Concretically, authors in each of these paragraphs (aside from paragraphs 68 and 174) are mentioned simply as non-x1-partitary/KLA” with nothing more”, it says further.

Also reportedly, the claim to the identity of the victims in paragraphs 68, 105 and 93 of the new indictment is unequivocal.

According to defence, the identity of the victims is material evidence that, if possible, should be declared in the indictment “since the identity of the victim is valid information for preparing the defence case”.

“Determining the location of the alleged crimes committed in paragraphs 68, 105, 157 is irrevocable. Where exactly did Budakov and Semet ishte happen the crimes allegedly occurred in those paragraphs of Aktakuza?

Thaci's role in the accused is also reportedly insufficient.

“Paragraphers 68, 105, 157, 93 and 174 are flawed as they do not state the material facts of Thaci's involvement in the accused crimes. Consequently, it is unclear what is alleged to have been Thaci's role in these crimes”, the defence said.

In the end, the defence has demanded that the SPS be ordered to change the indictment in light of identified defects, and if it cannot, drop charges that have been declared flawed.

Otherwise, on April 29th, the Specialised Prosecutor's Office has handed over a amended indictment against Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselin, Rexhepi and Jakup Krasniqi.

The prosecution is claiming that the four indictees have committed war crimes even in Gjilan, Budakov and Semetish, reports “Justice bet“.

In the published annex concerning crimes allegedly taking place in Seminishh and Budakova, the prosecution has listed war crimes such as arrest and unlawful or arbitrary detention, cruel or inhuman treatment, torture, murder. Meanwhile, as crimes against humanity have listed imprisonment, other inhumane acts, torture, murder, forced extinction of persons and persecution.

And for crimes claiming to take place in Gjilan, as war crimes, he has listed the arrest and illegal or arbitrary ban, cruel or inhuman treatment, torture and murder. While as crimes against humanity have listed imprisonment, other inhumane acts, torture, murder, and persecution.

On November 9th 2020, in their first appearances, Hashim Thaci's Jakup Krasniqi has been declared innocent of the charges placed on them.

Wessel has been declared on November 10th, as has Selimi on November 11th.

The incident against Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselin, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi is confirmed on October 26, 2020.

According to the prosecution, at least between March 1998 and September 1999, Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselini, Rexhep Selimi, Jakup Krasniqi and other members of the joint criminal enterprise had the common goal of securing and exercising control over all of Kosovo through methods involving intimidation, mistreatment, violence and the unlawful elimination of those considered opponents.

“Set up these opponents included persons who were, or who were considered to have been: (a) collaborators or forces, officials or state institutions of RFJ, or who (b) otherwise did not support the purposes or methods of the KLA and later QPK, among whom persons linked to the LDK and Serbs, Roma and persons of other nationalities (joinly, non-combatorsors). This common goal included crimes of persecution, imprisonment, arrest and arbitrary or illegal arrest, other inhumane acts, cruel treatment, torture, murder and forced disappearance of persons”, the indictment said.

In addition, Azem Syla, Lahi Brahimaj, Fatmir Limaj, Sylejman Selimi, Rrustem Mustafa, Shukri Buja, Latif Gashi and Sabit Geci are also mentioned.

According to the indictment, the accused along with other KLA leaders contributed to achieving the common goal.

“As an alternative, some or all of these individuals were not members of the joint criminal enterprise, but were used by members of the joint criminal enterprise to commit crimes for the realisation of the common goal (with members of the NKP, jointly members and NKP instruments)”, says the accusation act.