The Special Court in The Hague has rejected a request by former KLA leader Hashim Thaci to separate and postpone the proceedings in which Thaci is accused of obstruction and contempt of court for disclosing confidential information about witnesses in the main trial of Thaci on charges of war crimes in Kosovo and Albania, 1998-99.
The court is conducting two separate proceedings against Thaci. In the main trial, in which he is charged with war crimes together with Kadri Veselji, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi, the prosecution completed its two-year evidence presentation in April.
A decision by the trial chamber on the defense’s request to dismiss some or all of the charges, which was filed in June but is not yet available to the public, is expected in mid-July.
In the second half of August, the defense will have the opportunity to present their witnesses before the judges.
In a separate case, Thaci was also charged late last year with obstruction and contempt of court, officially known as the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, for revealing protected witnesses to visitors he received in custody, revealing the contents of confidential documents to them and attempting to influence witnesses through them.
Along with Thaci, his close associates, Bashkim Smakaj, Fadil Fazliju, Isni Kiljaj and Hajredin Kuci, who visited him in custody, are also charged. All, except Kuci, have been in custody at The Hague since late last year.
Thaci (56) is charged with three counts of obstruction of officials in the performance of their official duties; four counts of breach of procedural secrecy and four counts of contempt of court.
According to the indictment, Thaci revealed six protected witnesses to his associates who visited him in custody at The Hague last summer and fall and, through the visitors, instructed the witnesses on how to testify.
Fazliju, Smakaj, Kilaj and Kuci then made unauthorized contact with witnesses in Kosovo and attempted to influence them.
Thaci recently requested that the case against him be separated from that of his four co-defendants and that he be tried at a later date, arguing that his defense attorneys could not effectively represent him because they were already busy with the main war crimes trial.
In their motion to separate and postpone the trial for contempt and obstruction of court, Thaci’s defense attorneys suggested that, because the two proceedings were linked, there was a risk that Thaci would be tried twice for the same matter, which is legally impermissible.
As the court announced today, pretrial judge Marjorie Maslo dismissed Thaci’s request as unfounded.
Judge Maslo emphasized that it was not necessary for Thaci to be represented by the same defense attorneys in both cases and that he could, if he deemed it necessary, seek legal assistance from the court.
Furthermore, Judge Maslo noted that Thaçi was charged with different and unrelated crimes in two separate proceedings – for war crimes in one and for obstruction of justice in the other – so there is no risk that he could be tried twice for the same crime.
Thaçi has been in custody in Scheveningen since November 2020, when he was arrested in Kosovo together with Veselji, Selimi and Krasniqi, Beta writes.
