a minute agoReuters quote Thaci: Justice for the victims can be fulfilled by condemning the innocent
Periskopi(5 months ago)
(5 months ago)Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci told judges at his war crimes trial in The Hague on Wednesday that justice cannot be put in place by “prosecuting the innocent”. Thaci and three other former Kosovo Liberation Army commanders are accused of persecution, murder, torture and forced extinction of people during [...]
Thaci and three other former Kosovo Liberation Army commanders are accused of persecution, murder, torture and forced disappearance of people during and shortly after the 1998-99 uprising that eventually brought independence of the Albanian majority region from Serbia, Reuters has written for today's judicial process in The Hague, writes Reuters.
They deny all charges.
“Justice for victims cannot be honoured by prosecuting the innocent, reconciliation cannot take place through selective and ethnic-based prosecutions”, Thaci said in his final remarks before the court before the verdict, which is expected within three months.
Thaci, 57, described the prosecution's charges that he and the co-independents organised a violent campaign to gain Kosovo's political control as false “, totally absurd and deeply offensive”.
His defence team has said there is no evidence that links Thaci directly to any of the alleged crimes and that there was not enough evidence to say he controlled other KLA commanders.
Last week, prosecutors demanded a 45-year prison sentence for Thaci and others following a nearly three-year trial.
They say that in 1998 and 1999 more than 100 political opponents and alleged associates with Serbian security forces were killed and hundreds of others were abused in about 50 KLA-led detention camps.
Thaci and three other defendants were arrested in 2020 and sent to face trial at The Hague special war crimes tribunal.
More than 13,000 people, mostly Kosovo Albanians, are believed to have died during the recent uprising of the 1990s, when Kosovo was still a province of Serbia under then-President Slobodan Milosevic, whose troops violently oppressed ethnic Albanians.
KLA leaders are seen by many in Kosovo as heroes of national liberation. Thousands of people gathered in Pristina on Tuesday in support of former KLA commanders./Periscopi/
When will the final word be given to former KLA leaders? This is Judge Charles Smith.
