The Special's closed hearings, the American judge: Witnesses could be terrified to speak out against KLA heroes

Even the few minutes that have been seen, their image and their voice have been so transformed that few have understood what they have said.

The trial against Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselini, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi has opened 3 April in Kosovo's Specialised Chambers, which are otherwise known as the Special Court.

According to judges, editing evidence and testimony in closed sessions are regular legal procedure, which applies in cases when the prosecution, in consultation with the witness, requires that.

Test monitors, on the other hand, say there should be balance between transparency and witness protection.

Pineles: The goal is to protect those who may be in danger

American Judge Dean Pineles has a 20-year trial experience in the United States. He has worked in Kosovo as international criminal judge in the European Union's Mission for Rule of Law EULEX from 2011 to 2013.

Commenting on the judicial process against Thaci and others, he says this is not an ordinary process, as according to him, Kosovo's top <x0 configurations in the last 24 years” are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“Do you know how terrifying this can be for many witnesses”, asks Pines as they comment on the continued closure of the hearings during witness testimony in Kosovo's Specialised Chambers in The Hague.

It is important to understand that the court functions according to procedure rules. These rules have provisions that address witness protection, many of which may be terrified to testify against KLA war heroes, as well as alleged victims”, says Pineles of Radio Free Europe.

He adds that various legal provisions give the court great freedom in witness protection, including private hearings, if deemed appropriate.

According to him, documents and other evidence are edited by the court “to protect those who may otherwise be in danger”.

The Special Court stems from a 2010 Council of Europe report that has summed up a series of charges against former Kosovo Liberation Army members of kidnapping, mistreatment, murder without trial and others.

The court was founded in 2015 by the Kosovo Assembly, is part of Kosovo's judicial system, but operates with international personnel and has headquarters at The Hague.

“Drove from witness intimidation has been one of the reasons why this Kosovo court is located in The Hague and not in Pristina”, the Dutch Government said in a statement issued in 2016.

Alija: Closed sessions make monitoring difficult

Amer Alija, legal researcher at the Kosovo Humanitarian Law Fund, says monitoring the court process to Thaci and other former KLA superiors has been difficult because of closed sessions.

Alija says the opinion that interests the judicial process towards former KLA leaders should be convinced there has been enough evidence at the end of the process.

“Whether for a guilty or guilty decision, we should be convinced that there has been enough evidence for such a”, Alija tells Radio Free Europe.

However, he adds, for many witnesses and victims it may be difficult to testify against former KLA members, when they themselves are Kosovo Albanians.

Kosovo is a small country and can easily identify which witness it is referring to, in case his testimony was completely open to the public”, Alija says.

He recalls that in past war crimes judgments, such as the United Nations mission, U n NMIC, in Kosovo, as well as EULEX, the judgments have been more open and only about 20 per cent of them have gone through closed sessions.

Such a practice, Alija says, can be followed by specialised rooms.

In the trial process against Thaci and others, the Specialised Prosecutor's Office has warned that it will present 312 witnesses, but it is not known exactly what the number of witnesses will witness at closed sessions will be.

American Judge Dean Pieles believes that such will be many and says they should not be tried or questioned the work of judges, prosecutors and other staff of the specialised rooms.

The “would not be appropriate for this early phase to assume the court, composed of highly respected and experienced judges, who are doing their best to adapt numerous competitive interests to a complex case like this”, points out Pineles.

All to Protect Witnesses

Asked by the REL on the matter of closed hearings in Thaci's case and others, the spokesman for the Specialised Prosecutor's Office, Christopher Bennett, said:

The Specialised Prosecutor's Office seeks to present evidence and evidence in procedures that the media and the public can follow whenever possible. However, the SPS should also provide security for witnesses and therefore is obliged to use private sessions to protect their identity”.

Specialised Chambers spokesman Michael Doyle spoke about the matter on April 13th. He has said that judges sometimes decide that witnesses will be heard in the “private” or that they will edit specific information to protect the identity and safety of witnesses or victims.

According to him, the decision on “private session” is carefully considered by judges, case by case.

The judges make sure that there is balance between the need for witness protection and the rights of the accused. For example, even when witness testimony is not public, the accused's lawyers still have the right to ask the witness” questions, Doyle said about the media.

Thaci, Veselin, Krasniqi and Rexhepi are accused, among other things, of acts: persecution, imprisonment, torture, murder and forced disappearance of persons.

According to the indictment, their alleged crimes were committed from March 1998 to September 1999 in some areas in Kosovo and in some in northern Albania.

The prosecution claims that most of the victims of the accused about 100 of them are Albanians, but that there are Serbs and Kosovo Roma.

The trial against Thaci and three other indictees is the highest profile case at the Special Court, which relates to the 1998/99 war in Kosovo.

So far, this court has sentenced former Kosovo Liberation Army member Sali Mustafa to 26 years in prison, while to four years and three months it has sentenced the two members of the KLA War Veterans' Association, Hysni Gucati and Nasim Haradinaj, who have been tried to extract witness names in other cases.

Currently, in progress is the trial of Peter Shala, former KLA member.

Many in Kosovo view the Special Court as unfair because, as they say, it will judge only members of an ethnic group, in this case Albanians, while alleged crimes of Serbs will remain unpunished. / REL