What's the problem with the Hague defence fees?

The Ministry of Justice in Kosovo has said on July 24th that it has allocated about 33m euros to the total for protecting indictees for alleged war crimes in Kosovo in the trial that the Special Court holds in The Hague.

More specifically, the Court investigates the alleged crimes of members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UÇK) against ethnic minorities and political rivals, from January 1998 to December 2000.

This court is founded with international judges and prosecutors in 2015, but operates in the Netherlands.

It is funded mainly by the European Union, with additional contributions from several other countries, such as the United States, Canada, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey. In the past two years, it has had a budget of about 100m euros.

Spending on the defendants' defence teams was mainly carried out by the state of Kosovo.

Despite ministry statements, Kosovo Liberation Army War Veterans Organisation ( The KLA's OVL has said it considers it shameful to place “ceiling charges” on tariffs to defence teams in The Hague and has called for the immediate removal of them.

The main case in The Hague is taking place against former KLA leaders, against former President Hashim Thaci, former Prime Ministers Kadri Veselini and Jakup Krasniqi and former Kosovo delegation Rexhep Selimi, respectively.

They are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which have rejected the fourth.

In December 2024 a second act of obstruction of justice has been filed against Thaci.

What “chmime of ceiling” is this?
According to a 2024 administrative directive, the Justice Ministry has classified the payments for defence lawyers with the argument that “payment systems should contribute to maintaining a balance between the sources and the tools of the accused, in this case the state of Kosovo”.

According to this category, the state of Kosovo allocates up to 110,000 euros a month for a lawyer in the trial phase.

Acting Justice Minister Albulen Haxhiu has said in an interview for Radio Television Dukagujni on July 28th that in the fourth most serious category, Thaci, Veselin Krasniqi and Selimi are part of it.

And what we've done is, seeing that we've had several cases of obstruction of justice, we've made the difference through administrative instruction so that it's not someone with the same financial support as those facing these charges (war crimes), because it's not the same”.

Under the new administrative directive, if someone at the Special Court is tried for criminal acts, which have nothing to do with the crimes it was established for, including obstruction of justice, violation of court orders, or other violations, then the state offers up to 5,000 euros a month for protection.

This is designed to discourage anyone from harming this process. I, personally, believe that recent cases do more harm to them than they do to”, Haxhi said.

Should there be categories?
Amer Alija, legal researcher at the Kosovo Humanitarian Law Fund, has told Radio Free Europe that there must be limits to the amount the state shares for defence.

“cannot be spent without limit state resources”, he said February.

Ehat Miftaraj, executive director of the Kosovo Institute for Justice, has said that the state of Kosovo should not be blamed for the amount of payments it makes in cases related to obstruction of justice, but that it should ensure effective protection and not spare means when it comes to war crimes cases, writes REL, broadcast Periscope.

The government would have to have a much clearer vision and see the defendant's defence as protection for the state of Kosovo itself. The state would have to analyse, make an assessment of what the Republic of Kosovo wins and what the Republic of Kosovo's interest in protecting the KLA's war is and protecting the four key defendants in The Hague”.

According to him, the judicial process is now in <x0-time critical period” due to calling high profile witnesses to The Hague and major defence engagement, so there may be greater expenditures.

In August last year, Hashim Thaci's “Support for Legal Protection” Foundation had sent letters to the heads of state, urging funds to raise the needs of the former KLA officials, because otherwise the evacuation of key lawyers was endangered.

But, according to Miftaw, the “avacts have clearly known how long the tariffs will be and how long the” process will last.

The problem is that the defendants in The Hague, except for state aid, had the foundation that was financially supportive, and the defendants may have expected greater support from citizens, and when this has been enough, they have been left behind on payments to lawyers”.

Free Europe Radio has failed to get an answer from defence if claims on eventual evacuations are true. Neither has the Ministry of Justice responded to REL's request for more details about payments.

The Special Court has been formed abroad, following pressure from the international community, to ensure impartial judicial process. The fear of witness intimidation is another reason why the court has headquarters in the Netherlands rather than Kosovo.

MPs from the Kosovo Assembly have tried to detonate it in 2017, but without success. /Periscope/