Roses: The court is administering justice fairly, impartially and independently

On 13 May, he was scheduled to talk about developments in The Hague Specialised Chambers in the process of Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselini, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi. But the protest of Kosovo Liberation Army veterans changed its plans. For these, Specialised Chambers Speaker Ekaterina Trendafilova has spoken in an interview for Kosovo Radio Television.

“The media conference was canceled at the recommendation of the Kosovo Police. Despite my sincere commitment to meeting with journalists personally, I cannot do this if someone's safety is threatened. I do not tolerate violence during a media conference aimed at informing the people of Kosovo openly for us. This hostility, which was intended to prevent a peaceful and transparent meeting and discussion, explains and further justifys the reason why Kosovo and the EU made arrangements for these judgments to be carried out outside Kosovo. It is a pity to see disrespect for rule of law”, Trendafilova said.

She has also commented on criticism of the judicial process against Thaci and others, for which she has said no accusations of injustice remain.

I would describe the process as safe for witnesses, although there have been attempts to influence witnesses or intimidate them. I consider that the Court is administering justice fairly, impartially and independently. As for the criticisms in the Kosovo media that you mentioned, I have observed and taken those critical comments very seriously. For example, it has been falsely claimed that a person cannot be held in detention for waiting for trial for more than a year”, Trendafilova said, RTK reports, broadcast Periscope.

The head of the Chambers also spoke of the prosecution's request for provisional release, which was refused despite the completion of witnesses.

The judges are completely independent of their decisions and no one can interfere with their decision making. You are referring to earlier decisions concerning the provisional release requirement for which judges of a court made decisions on whether there was danger of escape, intervention of witnesses, or other criminal acts. To date, all three judges have concluded that the release should not be adopted, given the assessment of these risks”, Trendafilova said.

Asked about the four-way investigation into The Hague, Trandafilova said they are being tried as individuals, not as an organisation.

Specialised chamber only deals with the investigation and prosecution of persons in connection with claims of their illegal actions, their individual criminal responsibility. So, Specialised Chambers place responsibility only to individuals, not organizations. That means that, if individuals are mentioned in the courtroom as individuals of the KLA allegedly committed criminal acts, it is only about individuals and not the entire organisation”, Trendafilova said.

As for when this trial is expected to end with a first-degree decision, Trandafilova did not give a specific deadline.

When it comes to your question about the outcome of the trial, it is still early to predict when the judicial case will be pronounced. Defence teams have indicated that they will submit a joint request to drop the charges and we have to wait to see what the court decides on their request. Next, depending on the outcome of the demand, if the charges are not dropped, it is expected that the victim's defender will present his evidence and arguments, which will last approximately a week”, she said.

On June 2nd, it was pre-empted for the defence to file a motion to drop the indictment's points, but that deadline was postponed due to the prosecution's acceptance of some new evidence by the court. /Periscope