When will the final decision be made for former KLA leaders in The Hague?

After more than 5 years of trial proceedings against the four-year Kosovo Liberation Army appears to have drawn to an end. Already when hearings for the final words in the case of former KLA leaders have been scheduled early in February, April and early May 2026 are being seen as optimum deadlines for the court to issue the first-degree bias.

Monitors of this judicial process estimate that the judgment on Thaci and others has been a long process and conveyed with a lack of transparency because of the large number of SPS witnesses who were heard in edited or even closed sessions for the public.

Monitoring by the Fund for Humanitarian Law in Kosovo, Amer Alija believes that early May 2026 will bring a trial of the four KLA who have been in custody in The Hague since 2020.

But, according to the executive director of the Kosovo Institute for Justice, Ehat Miftalwright the time of declaring the trial in the Thaci case and others is approaching.

He says March and April could mark the moment when the Special Court will clear up its first decision against former KLA leaders, Kosovo Press reports.

In the trial review of former President Hashim Thaci, former chiefs of attorneys Kadri Veselin and Jakup Krasniqi, as well as former President Rexhep Selimi, who began in April 2023 in a total of 227 court hearings were heard 125 witnesses of the Specialised Prosecutor's Office, while another 117 handed in their written testimony and two witnesses to the victims' protection.

Meanwhile, at the beginning of September, the hearing of seven defence witnesses who were senior Western officials with direct knowledge of wartime developments began. Among them was former US Secretary of State James Rubin, retired US General Wesley Clark, who led NATO's air campaign against Serbian military targets in 1999.

Regarding the testimony of this important pair, but others who were heard, Amer Alija from the Fund for Humanitarian Law in Kosovo estimates defence evidence is of great weight.

While, Ehat Miftaraj from the IKD says these evidence destroyed the dinar of the Specialised Prosecutor's Office that they had built for the Kosovo Liberation Army.

The defence strategy was to argue that the KLA did not have an organised command structure, and that former President Hashim Thaci's role was political, but without authority over military operations.

Former US State Secretary James Rubin during his testimony on 16 September said the KLA was without “control and effective command”.

American General Wesley Clark, who led NATO's air campaign against Serb military targets in 1999, in his testimony, October 17th, The KLA described it as an independent group, but without the chain of command.

Former Kosovo Liberation Army leaders are in custody at The Hague by 2020. They have been acquitted of charges charged by the Special Prosecutor's Office. According to the indictment, Thaci, Veselin, Krasnic and Selimi are accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes. / KP/ Periscopi/