During his first appearance in the courtroom of the Specialized Council of Kosovo in The Hague, the former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) Haxhi Shala pleaded not guilty to the charge of obstruction of justice.
Yesterday, during his first appearance before the judge for the preliminary proceedings, Haxhi Shala decided not to plead guilty.
Shala has the right to plead guilty within 30 days, and the Specialized Council states that an additional appearance in court will be scheduled in due course.
The next hearing in this case is the status conference, which will be held tomorrow.
The specialized councils of Kosovo announced that Haxhi Shala, who was arrested in Kosovo on Monday, was brought to the detention facility of the court in The Hague on Tuesday.
The confirmed indictment states that from April 5th to 12th, 2023 at the latest, Shala and the co-perpetrators, including Sabit Januzi and Ismet Bakhtiari, as a group coordinated joint activities in order to induce Witness 1 to withdraw his statement or to refrain from testifying in the official proceedings before the Specialized Chambers by using serious threats and promises of benefits.
This arrest was preceded by the arrest of Sabit Januzi and Ismet Bakhtiari on the basis of a confirmed indictment. These two defendants were arrested in Kosovo on October 5th, 2023, and brought to the detention facility of the Specialized Council on October 6th.
In the Specialized Councils of Kosovo in The Hague, the trial on the indictment for war crimes in the case of “Thaci and others” and in the case against Pjetra Shale is ongoing, AA reports.
Photo©️Specijalizovana veća Kosova u Hagu
E.Dz.
