Analysts have called the trial against the former president of Kosovo Hashim Thaçi, the former head of parliament Kadri Veseli and Jakup Krasniqi and the former deputy Rexhep Selimi, which is ongoing in the specialized chambers of Kosovo, a very long process and lack of transparency. However, they say that the special court can pronounce the decision in the spring of next year.
“It was a marathon trial that lasted 5 years. This process also had many sessions edited for the public, about 50 percent of the witnesses were protected witnesses of the Prosecution. The court hearings when these witnesses were heard were partially or mostly closed to the public and this affected the violation of transparency and publicity… Now the case has come to the end of the procedure, sometime towards the beginning of May 2026, the verdict of the first instance in the case of Thaçi and others is expected to be announced“, said Amer Alija, Fund for Humanitarian Law in Kosovo.
“I believe that the months of March and April can be the time limits when the court can come out with a decision on the case in question, I am talking about the first instance“, says Miftaraj.
227 court sessions were held in the trial that started in April 20230 where 125 witnesses of the Office of the Specialized Prosecutor were heard, while another 117 submitted their written testimonies. In early September, the hearing of seven defense witnesses began, including former US Assistant Secretary of State James Rubin and retired US General Wesley Clark, who led the NATO air campaign undertaken in the 1990s against Serbian army and police positions. For Miftaraj, the testimonies of these last two destroyed the narrative that the Specialized Prosecutor’s office had built for the KLA
“The quality, integrity, credibility of the ZPS witnesses was of a very low level in relation to the credibility, integrity of the defense witnesses… The defense witnesses destroyed the narrative that the Special Prosecution has built regarding who led the KLA, in this case the Prosecution named Hashim Thaçi as the commander of the KLA“, he emphasized.
Thaçi, Veseli, Krasniqi and Rexhepi have been in custody in The Hague since 2020. They are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the last war in Kosovo, charges to which the four former high officials have themselves pleaded not guilty.
Journalist: Elda Pepa
