Former Dutch ambassador to Kosovo “breaks out”: If Thaci is convicted, it would be shame and scandal for the court

The criticism concerns the functioning and legitimacy of the Special, until it is convinced that former Kosovo president Hashim Thaci will be acquitted.

If it's a serious court, you'll be acquitted, all of you, for lack of evidence, because in a normal court, people are punished only if there is no slightest doubt”, he shows, while recalling the conversation he had had with the former president regarding the Special Court.

According to him, the fact that Thaci and his associates are in custody for five years is unwarranted and, therefore, the trial has deliberately stalled for the domestic benefits of prosecutors and judges.

It has been two years since the one known as the major trial-trial trial against former KLA leaders has begun. The Specialised Prosecutor's Office took two years from the start of the trial, and nearly 5 years from when former KLA superiors are staying in custody at The Hague to close its case, follows Periscope.

No, I didn't expect it to take that long. Especially this pre-trial period has been extremely long. And also, I followed, it took a long time before they started. I've never been in favor of this court... I'm afraid many of these prosecutors and judges, they like it because they get paid a lot, so the longer they get, the more they get. So, I think it was a terrible thing, and I think it's a terrible thing to keep people in custody so long, and especially those who volunteered”, he says.

Returning to the beginning of the Special Court, the former ambassador cites the key role of Dick Marty's report, which claimed organ trafficking by the KLA. He says this report was weak and groundless, but was used as political reasons to build a new, internationally influential court to satisfy the demands of Serbian leaders of the time, such as Boris Tadic.

Although ambassador, Bosch tells of Kosova Prees he has openly expressed his stand against a special court.

I was against the tribunal, always convinced that it wasn't true, because Serbs had made such accusations against Bosniaks, who were also completely groundless. This is their tactic, their tactics to make big accusations and then turns out they had no basis... I was an ambassador, and I was paid by the Dutch government, so I had to do what they told me to do. Of course, I had to do it even if in private I could say I don't agree, again, I had to say it has to be done. The problem was the Marty Report. The Marty report started everything. The Marty report, which I think was an extremely bad report, that I also reported to Holland that it was a really bad report after I read it, and they got very nervous with me that I shouldn't, who I think I am to criticize such an important person. However, they didn't like that I said”, Bosch says.

The former Dutch ambassador tells of Kosova Prees as he thought the Special Court had.

I remember, I talked to Thaci, maybe a year ago, and then he asked me, what do you think of this court? The slightest doubt. Then they say you've been declared innocent for lack of evidence. So that's not true, but you can't judge without any doubt because if you have witnesses from Serbia, I told him, you can't trust them, because they have an interest to make you look bad. So you can't trust them. That's why, normally, you have to release”, Bosch says.

The trial against former KLA leaders began on April 3, 2023, more than two years from confirmation of the indictment. The prosecution said the accused were part of a “joint criminal enterprise”.

The SPS brought former KLA members former political figures, international representatives, and others unknown to their identity. Lawyers dismissed all charges and argued that the KLA had no organised command structure.

But the defense failed to counter millions of pages of written documents to the tribunal. The SPS case is considered weak.

The former ambassador shows how he expects this process to be completed.

It is now ending. We hope it will really stop, but we have to see, because the problem is that the court said the KLA was a criminal organization and that Thaci and the others were in charge of it... I think if there was any evidence that he personally did something, or any of the others did something personally, I think it's okay to follow them. But you can't make them responsible for everything in the KLA, because, first, The KLA was not a hierarchical organisation, were free groups, Haradinaj was also U CK, but there was no connection to Thaci, so they were different groups. So if he was convicted, given that he was supposed to be head of a criminal organization, which again, it's not true, then I think it would be embarrassing. It would be a shame and a scandal for the court, because it's not true”, says former Ambassador Robert Bosch.

Disgraceful also calls the Court's decision not to allow former President Thaci to attend his father's funeral in March of this year.

Former president of the country, Hashim Thaci, was allowed to visit his father while lying at the University Clinical Centre in Kosovo, just a few days before he could change his life.

Homazhe at Haxhi Thaci's tomb was allowed two days after the funeral.

The “has already had an impact. I mean, he couldn't even go to his father's funeral, which, of course, was a real shame, really shame, against all the normal rules, and especially in a place like yours, where your family always matters, but in your country it's even more important. So you deny going to his father's funeral, of course, is terrifying. So their lives have been affected. And, of course, if five years of your life were taken at the time when you were more in shape, that's, of course, terrible, and you'll always suffer from this.

The former ambassador also comments on the position of Kosovo institutions regarding the Special Court.

There must be, of course, many penalties for the burial case. There was. And I think Edi Rama has also been very active in condemning and criticising this. Your government may be a little less. Of course, they did, but no more than necessary, for Thaci was, with all due respect, Kurt's opponent. So, I guess, yeah. Should they do more? Yeah, it doesn't make any sense anymore, because it's over now. I think now everything is done. They did. But they did what they had to do, they didn't go any further, if you know what I mean. But Rama did. That's politics”, he says.

Otherwise, lawyers from former KLA superiors have expressed optimism that there will eventually be a positive outcome. The four defence teams will demand the collapse of specific pieces of the indictment, including war crimes claims in Kosovo.