Hashim Thaci (Photo: PrintScreen YouTube)
Former Kosovo Liberation Army commander Hashim Thaci pleaded before the Hague court for KLA crimes on May 10 not guilty to atrocities in the municipalities of Suva Reka and Gnjilane which were added to the charges for war crimes in Kosovo and Albania between 1998-1999 that he faces.
"I plead not guilty," Thaci said after judge Nicolas Guillou asked how he pleaded to crimes against Albanians and Serbs in the villages of Budakovo and Semetiste, in the Suva Reka municipality, and a boarding school in Gnjilane.
At the same time, in a brief address to the judge, Thaci claimed that he could not fully read and understand the new charges against him because of many revised parts to protect the victims and witnesses. According the new charges the KLA abducted, illegally detained, beat up, tortured and in some instances killed a number of Albanians and Serbs in Budakovo, Semetiste and Gnjilane.
The prosecutors say that Thaci illegally and randomly detained civilians who were not part of hostilities and accuse him of cruel and inhumane treatment, torture, forced disappearances, murder and persecution. In the expanded indictment chief prosecutor Jack Smith describes these crimes as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Co-defendants Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi also pleaded separately not guilty to the new charges.
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