Prosecution Seeks 45-Year Prison Sentences for Thaci, KLA Cohorts

Hasim Taci (Beta/Armenija Zajmi-Besevic)

On Feb. 9, The Hague prosecution requested 45-year prison sentences for former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leaders Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi, all accused of war crimes in Kosovo and Albania in 1998-99.

Beginning her closing statement, lead prosecutor Kimberly West opined that the evidence presented in court showed the war crimes cited in the indictment did in fact occur and that “the accused bear criminal responsibility.”

“The evidence justifies long prison sentences for all the accused,” West stated.

Thaci, Veseli, Selimi and Krasniqi are standing trial for war crimes against Serbs, Roma and Albanians deemed “collaborators” perpetrated in around 40 KLA detention centers in Kosovo and several more in Kukes and Cahan in north Albania between March 1998 and November 1999.

The lead prosecutor said the defendants are responsible for the deaths of at least 100 victims and the abuse of hundreds of others.

West also underlined the proven accusation of all four KLA leaders being “the protagonists of a joint criminal undertaking” aimed at assuming control over all of Kosovo.

The trial panel, presided over by judge Charles Smith from the U.S., will be hearing the prosecution’s and defense’s closing arguments until Feb. 18. As per the rules of the court, the verdict will then be delivered within 90 days.

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers, as the court is officially called, was founded in 2015 by the Kosovo Parliament under international pressure. The pressure resulted from a 2011 report published by Swiss politician Dick Marty, whom the Council of Europe had named special rapporteur for illicit organ trafficking in Kosovo following claims made by Carla del Ponte, the former prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

The Chambers are officially a part of Kosovo’s judicial system but operate in The Hague.