Four years from the arrest, is the grand trial at The Hague coming to an end?

The end of next year, or the beginning of 2026, could mark the completion of the trial process against former Kosovo Liberation Army leaders.

Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselini, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi are in custody at The Hague, the Dutch town where the Special Court has been headquartered since November 2020. The number of prosecution witnesses in what is known as the grand trial has reached the hundredth.

The prosecution there has given up hearing witnesses and has accepted some written evidence.

On Friday, November 1st, the ZPS announced it would no longer rely on the testimony of twelve witnesses. It also became known that the SPS will submit the statements of eight written witnesses instead of direct evidence in court.

The SPS issue is set to close in April next year, to then pave the way for the defence one.

Lawyers in Kosovo and monitors estimate this process has been prolonged.

Artan Cerkini, a lawyer accredited by the Special, tells Kosovo Preress that there is room for greater reduction of the number of witnesses. Speaking of this process, the watchdog from the Fund for Humanitarian Law in Kosovo, Amer Alija, believes that by the end of next year, the former KLA leaders will have a clear first-degree decision.

E Astrit Kolaj, from the Kosovo Institute for Justice, tells Kosovo Press that cutting the length of this judicial process should not hurt the parties in the procedure.

Much of this judicial process has been spent in closed public hearings and protected witnesses.

The judgment on Thaci and others began in April 2023.

Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselini, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi have been declared innocent of all charges.