Today, Monday, the Special Crime Court for Kosovo in The Hague begins hearings on the war crimes case of former President of the Republic of Kosovo Hashim Thaci and other officials.
In addition to Thaça, former parliamentary speakers Yakov Krasnić and Kadri Veseli, as well as former self-determination MP Recep Selimi, who were field commanders of the KLA, will also be heard.
The four defendants, at a preliminary hearing in November 2020, declared their rejection of the accusations against them by the International Special Court of Justice of having committed war crimes during the 1998-1999 conflict.
Recep Salimi called the accusation “inaccurate and unfair”, noting that the West then supported the “sincere and honest fight” of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which they waged with “General Wesley Clark of NATO.”
“Each defendant is individually criminally responsible for six counts of crimes against humanity – persecution, imprisonment, inhuman treatment, torture, murder and enforced disappearance of people and four counts of war crimes – false imprisonment, ill-treatment, torture and murder,” – the message says. This is stated in the message of the press service of the court.
According to the investigators, the crimes committed from March 1998 to the end of September 1999 in the province of Kosovo and in the north of Albania led to the fall of “hundreds of civilians” among the victims.
The Special Court for Kosovo will sit April 3-5 and will be attended by 140 prosecution witnesses from the victims or their relatives.
The Special Court indicted 2020 war crimes charges against Hashim Thaçi, who stepped down as President of Kosovo and was later arrested, transferred and detained in The Hague.
Source: “Sputnik”