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International experts: It is difficult to find the former leaders of the KLA guilty

2023-04-07 08:22:14Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

International experts: It is difficult to find the former leaders of the KLA

Specialized prosecutors in The Hague will find it difficult to prove that the former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army are guilty of the alleged crimes, two transitional justice experts, Mathias Holvoet and Aidan Hehir, say for Radio Free Europe.

Holvoet, a lecturer in International Criminal Law at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, says he has also been impressed by how strong the defense team is for the accused.

"The problem is always in finding the connection between the crimes physically committed on the ground and the most powerful people in the organization, such as [Hashim] Thaçi, [Kadri] Veseli, [Rexhep] Selimi and [Jakup] Krasniqi. And the Prosecution will have to prove this and it will be difficult. To be honest, my instinct tells me that there may well be an acquittal," says Holvoet, adding that there may be differences between the four accused.

As an example of how difficult it is to prove such a connection, Holvoet refers to the judgments of the Hague Tribunal in the cases against the former KLA superiors, Ramush Haradinaj and Fatmir Limaj, who were found not guilty of charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

After more than two years since the confirmation of the indictment, the trial against Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selim and Jakup Krasniqi started on Monday, April 3, at the Special Court in The Hague. They are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The main facts about the trial of the former leaders of the KLA
The trial of the former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, Hashim Thaçi, KadriVeseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi, starts on April 3 in The Hague, Holland. They are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

These are the key facts you need to know about this process.

During the opening statements, the Prosecution argued that the accused and other members of the KLA were part of a "joint criminal enterprise" that targeted those it considered "collaborators" and "traitors" in order to "gain power".

Meanwhile, the lawyers rejected all the charges against their clients, arguing that the KLA did not have an efficient command structure.

For Holvoet and Hehir - researchers of transitional justice, humanitarian intervention and state-building in Kosovo from the University of Westminster in England - what stands out the most is the use of the term "joint criminal enterprise".

"Anyone who is aware of what happened in Kosovo will not be surprised that there are claims that members of the KLA have committed crimes. But this court seems to be accusing the KLA as a whole of some kind of grand strategy, which I think is unsustainable," says Hehir.

"The idea that the KLA is a criminal enterprise... that term is very derogatory and I think that will alarm people [in Kosovo] and really touch that nerve that people feel about the KLA as heroes", he adds.

During the opening statements, the Specialized Prosecutor, Alex Whiting, said that the case against the four former KLA leaders is about them, not the whole KLA, adding that "the majority of KLA members do not they had nothing to do with the crimes for which the indictment was filed".

Meanwhile, on the last day of the opening statements, on April 5, the former spokesman of the KLA, Jakup Krasniqi, said that his statements at that time - which were used by the prosecutors as evidence - were only propaganda to create "the impression that KLA was an organized structure".

However, Holvoet points out that at the Hague Tribunal there have also been convictions for spreading propaganda.

Milan Gvero, assistant commander in the Bosnian Serb army, was sentenced in 2010 to five years in prison for spreading false information.

According to the judgment of the Hague Tribunal, through false information, he had contributed to the joint criminal enterprise aimed at ethnically cleansing the area of ​​Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

According to Hehir, the judicial process against the former leaders of the KLA will be overshadowed by the protests that took place in The Hague and Pristina before the start of this process. That's especially since he expects the process to be slow.

"I think it will be a slow process of revealing information for three, four, five, maybe even six years," he adds, expressing disappointment with the length of this process.

But, Holvoet argues that even though the process seems to take a long time, it should be so that the lawyers of the accused have the opportunity to counter-argue.

"It is inevitable. It is done, in a way, to guarantee the right to a fair trial. But, I think it's problematic that they will be in custody during the trial without having the possibility to be released temporarily", concludes Holvoet.

Thaçi, Veseli, Krasniqi and Selimi have been in custody in The Hague since November 2020. They have pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against them. /REL


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