Defence requires that Peter Shala be replaced by house arrest

“Supervision respectfully requires the panel to end the accused's continued detention and order his provisional release or house arrest at his residence in Belgium, subjecting itself to any conditions considered appropriate”, said in the parliament.

The defence reportedly maintains its position that adequate alternative measures exist against detention and that must be taken into account, reports the “Justice Vow”.

For example, the request that the accused remain in house arrest at his residence in Belgium could suffice to ease any potential risks stemming from the provisional release of the accused” is said to be further.

And according to the defense, the accused reiterates his willingness to engage and provide any guarantees considered appropriate to stay at his home, not to change his residence, to hand over his passport and other travel documents, to report daily to Belgian police or other important authorities, to submit close monitoring by the authorities, to appear and return to court whenever ordered to do so, and/or to submit to any other condition considered appropriate and ordered by the panel.

The defence is also said to fully support its former paradents on lawlessness in continuing the detention of the accused.

According to the defence, as recently repeated by the panel, presumption of the accused's innocence is the starting point for assessing continued detention and a burden to prove that continuing custody is necessary only for the prosecution.

They stress that the right to freedom should be the rule and detention should be the exception, which is allowed only when it is shown to be strictly necessary and proportional in that no alternative measure can ease a risk posed by provisional release.

The protection risks that, as the European Court of Human Rights found, the reasons cited for the commandment and duration of the detention should be neither general nor abstract, and that specific facts are required to justify the continuation of the detention.

In the defense's view, the prosecution's constant call to “s and means” without any further justification, as well as the aforementioned “climm of intimidation [...] and intervention” fail to meet the strict and individualised test to apply this measure.

The defense points out that there has been no evidence or other material on the condition that the accused has intervened or may interfere with any witnesses in the procedure.

The revised public version of this parachute can be found in English: THESE.

During February, the trial has begun in this case, where on February 21st the prosecution and the defense of the victims have submitted their opening statements, while on February 22nd they have heard Peter Shala's opening statements of defence as well as statements without his oath.

In March it has begun to present the prosecution's evidence, where six witnesses have been heard so far.

The first witness has begun his testimony on March 27th and completed it on March 28th, the second witness has begun witnessing on March 28th and has completed it on March 29th, the third witness has begun witnessing on March 29th and has completed it on March 30th, the same day as the fourth witness.

The fifth witness, however, began witnessing on May 1 as he finished on May 2, where the testimony of the sixth witness began, which ended on May 3rd. The testimony of the seventh witness then began on May 30, and it ended on June 6th.

Otherwise, Shala was arrested on 16 March 2021 by Belgian authorities and transferred to The Hague on 15 April 2021, on a request for co-operation in implementing the warrant and the command for transfer issued by Kosovo's Specialised Chambers.

In the confirmed indictment, Shala is charged with individual criminal responsibility in various forms of war crimes as arbitrary bans, cruel treatment, torture and illegal murder committed in the context of the armed conflict in Kosovo and in connection with this conflict.

The “commands that Mr. Shala was carried out approximately between May 17th 1999 and June 5, 1999, against persons who were held in the metal factory in Kukes (Albania), allegedly used by the Kosovo Liberation Army”, it is said in the communique.