Thaci's lawyer: According to our calculations, the prosecution doesn't finish the case until May 2027.

At the conference on the performance of the case against Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselin, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasnqi, lawyer Luka Misetiq, Thaci's defender, said that according to their estimates, the Office of Specialised Prosecutor (ZPS) does not conclude the case in April 2025, but in May 2027.

The conference on the progress of the issue was held Monday at Thaci's request for defence, reports “The Justice Vow”.

Lawyer Misetic requested this conference after the SPS announced on May 25th that it has made reducing several witnesses to their list of evidence.

According to Misethic, it is the right of the accused to have an accelerated process, but according to them, the SPS cannot conclude its case in April 2025 and even near that period.

“The ZPS made statements 21 May concerning simplifying its evidence, and this has been following its commitments it has had in its latest performance on the performance of the issue in March. We note that the SPS has said they would reduce or have proposed several reductions and have reduced by 40 hours the total hours they initially required. However, we think it is the right of the accused to have a fair and accelerated process. With this prediction they have given, it is unlikely to end in April 2025, and not even near that period”, Misethic said.

He said they made an estimate of the time Z has declared. The SP that needs witness hearing and how much it's exploited.

In February 2023, ZPS said the time it needed was 545 hours. We now use this as a reference level. On Friday, we received statistics on how much time has been spent on the prosecution's side, and the latter has so far used 120 for its questions. We've had 111 days in the courtroom, which means on average it's used 1.08 hours a day for its own questions given the pace we've followed in the past”, he said.

According to Misethic, based on the current calendar, we have 71 days left for sessions.

The first three months of 2025 we're going to have at least 38 days in the courtroom if we start on January 14th and proceed with planning three weeks, a week off, three weeks off, two weeks off, so we can do 33 days, which means there will be 104 courtrooms before April 1st, 2025. We multiply this by 1.8 using Z. The SP now for its own questions and we come to realize that the multiplier is 112 hours remaining for the SPS, starting until April 1st 2025”, Misethic said.

He also said that, according to his estimate, 273 hours remain for the Prosecutor until April 1, 2025.

I say the SPS can only ask 232 hours of questions until April 1st of next year and what it means is that 313 hours out of 545 totals were envisioned in February 2023. According to the May 21st presentation, they have reduced by 40 hours for what remained 273 hours until April 1st on 2025”, the lawyer said.

On the other hand, he said that according to his calculations, the SPS could complete its evidence around May 2027.

The “may have saved about 75 hours a day, but there are about 200 hours left for the SPS since April 1st 2025, and if we apply this estimate by 1.08 per hour a day, it means that we want 216 more days in the courtroom for the prosecution to end up with its evidence starting on April 1st 2025, and if we implement the 100-day rule we have a year, that means that the ZPS can complete its evidence around May 2027. This is a hypothesis. I want to understand where we actually stand. Of course I would like him to tell me Z. The SP you've fucked up and we're gonna end up in the spring of 2025”, Misethic said.

Misetic asked me to set deadlines for the SPS to finish its case. He added that the defence has been cautious about the deadlines.

The lawyer stressed that he is open to all proposals, but that there should be no sacrifice of the accused's rights to question.

Misetic said he thinks it is a structural problem in the matter, but this problem, according to him, cannot be solved by telling the defence to reduce their questions.

Otherwise, the Specialised Prosecutor's Office, on September 30th, 2022, has handed over the confirmed amended indictment against Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselini, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi, which consists of ten points of charges, where the latter are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

On April 29th 2022, the Specialised Prosecutor's Office had handed over a amended indictment to Hashim Thaci, Kadri Wessel, Rexhepi and Jakup Krasniqi, where four indictees have committed war crimes even in Gjilan, Budakov and Semtish.

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 also been declared in his presentation on November 10th, as has Rexhep Selimi on November 11th.

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