The panel of the Court of Appeal in the Specialized Chambers of Kosovo in The Hague has partially approved the request of the defense to extend the deadline for submitting notices of appeal against the judgment against Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi. According to the Special decision, both the defense and the Office of the Specialized Prosecutor already have until November 27, 2026 to submit the notification regarding the steps they will take in the second stage of the process.
The defense had requested that the deadline be postponed until December 15, 2026, arguing the request with the length and complexity of the first-instance judgment.
Another argument of the defense was the lack of translation of the judgment in the Albanian language, while the accused do not have the opportunity to read the judgment in English. According to the defense, this situation has created additional difficulties and required the commitment of considerable resources for the translation of the document. The Appellate Panel has also instructed the Registry Office to report on the progress of the translation of the first-instance judgment into Albanian and the expected time for its completion.
The Court has recalled that the submissions submitted to the Specialized Chambers must be public, unless there are exceptional reasons for confidentiality. For this reason, the defense has been requested to submit a public redacted version of its request within 10 days of receiving the decision notification.
