Prosecutors Remove One Allegation from Indictment of Kosovo’s Thaci

Prosecutor Jack Smith (second from left) in the Hague courtroom in November 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/JERRY LAMPEN.

A judge at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague has authorised a request from the prosecution to withdraw claims of alleged crimes in the municipality of Ferizaj/Urosevac during the Kosovo war in 1999 from the indictment of Hashim Thaci and three other ex-guerrillas.

Pre-trial judge Nicolas Guillou said in his decision, which was dated September 29 but published on Friday, that the prosecution should “reflect the withdrawal of the Ferizaj/Urosevac allegations” in an amended indictment.

The prosecution had asked to amend the indictment by removing “allegations of crimes committed against at least one victim… at a house in or around Ferizaj/Urosevac”.

It explained that it “decided not to rely on the evidence” of one witness and that as a result “there is now insufficient evidence to prove the Ferizaj/Urosevac allegations”.

Former Kosovo president Thaci and his three co-accused, former parliament speakers Kadri Veseli and Jakup Krasniqi and MP Rexhep Selimi, still face various serious charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including illegal detentions, torture, murder, enforced disappearances and persecution.

The crimes were allegedly committed from at least March 1998 to September 1999 during the time they were commanding the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA.

All four men have pleaded not guilty. They have been in detention since they were arrested in November 2020.

Last week, the head of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, Ekaterina Trendafilova, said that the trial could possibly begin at the end of this year or the start of 2023.

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers were set up to try crimes allegedly committed during and just after the Kosovo war from 1998 to 2000. They are part of Kosovo’s judicial system but located in the Netherlands and staffed by internationals.

They were set up under pressure from Kosovo’s Western allies, who feared that Kosovo’s justice system was not robust enough to try KLA cases and protect witnesses from interference.

The so-called ‘special court’ is widely resented by Kosovo Albanians who see it as an insult to the KLA’s war for liberation from Serbian rule.