Former American judge: Individuals, not KLA, are hard to say

He, among other things, says that in this process it is difficult to tell the Albanian people that only individuals and not the Kosovo Liberation Army are being tried.

On April 3rd, the trial began against four former Kosovo Liberation Army leaders, who are being charged by the Prosecutor's Office in The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

But the indictment does not include claims by former Swiss Senator Dick Marty's 27-page report that there have been organ trafficking in Kosovo.

While former US Judge of EULEX Dean Pineles says that if there were not these organ trafficking claims, the Special Court would most likely not be formed.

The “has been discussed over the issue of organ trafficking, ranging from former International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia chief Carla Del Ponte to former Swiss state prosecutor Dick Marty and Clinton Williams. But now as you can see, organ trafficking is not involved in the indictment. Now this issue is only history, not judicial process. If it had been known from the beginning that there were no organ trafficking this court would probably not have existed”, Tv 1 Dean Pineles said.

The war crimes judge estimates it is very difficult to say that only individuals and not the Kosovo Liberation Army are being tried in this process.

“From Specialised Chambers has repeatedly repeated that only individuals and not the Kosovo Liberation Army are being tried, but I have a hard time making the difference. The trial of four KLA commanders and then say their guerrilla organisation is not being tried is difficult to sell Albanian opinion. I think Albanians are seeing the Kosovo Liberation Army” being tried here, he says.

He has now expressed surprise that the prosecution will take over six years to present evidence against former KLA leaders.

According to him, this is an extremely long period and that new generations can see Kosovo's history differently.

The trial is expected to be about six years long, which to me is extraordinary. During this period of time, new generations will come that can see history differently. So I understand very well the despair the people of Kosovo have. They have the right to think that this court is biased, given that war criminals are not being prosecuted in Serbia during this period. We must accept the truth that Serbian criminals were the main perpetrators of this fight”, says Pineles.

All four former heads of the Kosovo Liberation Army, Hashim Thaci, Rexhep Selimi, Jakup Krasniqi and Kadri Veselini have been declared innocent over charges weighing on them.