Evidence, Witness List Submitted for Hague Trial of Hashim Thaci

Hashim Thaci (FOTOBETA/AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis)

The prosecution of the tribunal for crimes of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has submitted to the trial chamber the list of witnesses and a detailed review of evidence the prosecution will present at the trial of the former KLA commander, Hashim Thaci, and the three co-defendants in the trial for crimes committed in Kosovo and Albania in 1998 and 1999.

The co-defendants in the Thaci trial are Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi. According to the Dec. 22 announcement of the tribunal, the official name of which is the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, the prosecutors have submitted the pretrial brief as a confidential document and one not available to the public, for the purpose of protecting the safety of around 300 announced witnesses.

At earlier status hearings, the prosecutors have claimed that the trial could start in January 2022. However, they have since stopped elaborating on the time of start of proceedings. From the time Thaci and the co-defendants were placed in detention in The Hague in November last year, their defense have claimed that the proceedings could not start before mid-2022.

Thaci, 53, Veseli, 54, Selimi, 50 and Krasniqi, 70, are indicted for crimes committed in 42 illegal KLA detention facilities in Kosovo and Albania, against at least 407 detainees, of whom at least 98 have been killed, in the period from March 1998 to September 1999. The crimes have been qualified as crimes against humanity in six counts and war crimes in four counts.