Doyle: Trial against former KLA leaders expected to end next year, witness list reduced

Kosovo Specialised Chambers spokesman at The Hague Michael Doyle has said the prosecution is expected to call all its witnesses to former KLA leaders being tried in The Hague by April next year.

Doyle said that in the case against Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselini, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi, up until now 85 witnesses have testified either in the courtroom or through a video connection, and 69 others in written form.

He has now declared that, after the prosecution's witnesses, defence will start calling its witnesses, according to him, once in the next year.

“In the case against Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselin, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi, the prosecution is presenting its case and calling witnesses. The prosecution has said they aim to call their witnesses until April 2025. So we're in the middle of this process. 85 witnesses testified, either in the courtroom or through a video connection, and 69 others witnessed only in one form of writing. So after the prosecution concludes presenting its case, defence will take the opportunity to reject the case. We expect that once next year, defence will begin calling its witnesses”, he told EO.

Doyle has added that one of the judges' priorities is to speed up the trial process, while saying that reducing Porcuroria's witness list for several times now is positive for the process.

One of the principal tasks of the court is that procedures are fair and fast. That includes giving of the deadlines the prosecution has said you need until April 2025. Judges are trying to accelerate the judgment and ask the prosecution to speed up the case as much as possible, so there is also a reduction in the number of witnesses”, he said.

On the other hand, he has said that people will realise that Kosovo's Specialised Chambers in The Hague have been created for crimes charged within jurisdiction, as part of the rule of Kosovo law, where there are some checkpoints and balance.

As evidence of this, he has received the appeal of Peter Shala and Salih Mustaf. As he said in the case of Mustafa, to whom sentence was dropped from 26 to 15 years, “we have seen that the trial system here is the same as that of Kosovo”

In the case of Peter Shala, who has been convicted of arbitrary war crimes, torture and murder, and sentenced to 18 years in prison, the sentence he has appealed. Shala has been convicted of several events at a metal factory in Kukes, Albania for torture and murder, in a detention centre, against Albanians and Serbs who have come up against UCK's. This is the first verdict he's appealed to”.

The “Fokus is to understand that Kosovo Specialised Chambers in The Hague have been created for crimes charged within jurisdiction, as part of the rule of Kosovo law. So the way the prosecution works is that the prosecution brings charges against someone for war crimes, crimes against humanity or witness intervention, and then judges focus on ensuring an impartial and fair” judgment.

We saw in the case of Salih Mustaf, that the trial system here is the same as that of Kosovo, where there are some checkpoints and balance. In Mustafa's case, the court has pronounced a 26-year prison sentence, then in appeal it was said that this sentence is not in line with sentences of the same kind and the sentence was reduced to 22 years. After another appeal to the Supreme Court, it was found that the Appeals Chamber had overlooked a step in achieving their decision to consider a milder sentence. Now, Mustafa has been given an even smaller sentence for 15 years. So I think it's really important to stress that the judges are there to take cases that come from the prosecution and ensure fair judgments”, has ended Doyle.