BELGRADE – Today, the defence of Hashim Thaçi, one of the leaders of the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and former President of Kosovo, asked the Kosovo Specialist Chamber in Hague to acquit him of war crimes charges in Kosovo and Albania in 1998 and 1999. In the defence closing arguments, Luka Mišetić, Thaçi’s attorney, said that “Thaçi is innocent”, adding that the judges should issue an acquittal “as the prosecutor’s office did not prove the charges”.
According to Mišetić, the prosecutors did not produce any “direct evidence” during the trial that Thaçi “had committed or ordered any crimes”, N1 reported.
“There was not a single order from Thaçi to anyone to commit crimes, nor a report sent to him by the perpetrators… There is no evidence that he personally committed any crimes”, the defence attorney said.
Thaçi, along with Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi, and Jakup Krasniqi, has been charged with war crimes against Serbs, Roma and Albanians in Kosovo and Albania between 1998 and 1999.
On 10 February, the Office of the Special Prosecutor requested prison sentences of 45 years for them.
Chief Prosecutor Kimberly West stated that the evidence presented during the trial demonstrated that the crimes outlined in the indictment had been committed and that “the accused bear criminal responsibility”.
According to the indictment, the KLA members, controlled by the accused, committed these crimes within the framework of a joint criminal enterprise aimed at taking control of all of Kosovo by violence against all the persons whom the KLA treated as “adversaries”.
As evidence that Thaçi was not responsible for war crimes, defense attorney Mišetić stated that this was claimed by former US officials James Rubin, Christopher Hill and NATO Commander Wesley Clark, as defence witnesses.
General Clark, according to Mišetić, said that “there is no evidence that Thaçi committed crimes”, and that “it is not fair” to attribute to him the crimes of others, while Ambassador Hill testified that “he is not the person prone to violence”.
“The witnesses described Thaçi as a foreign minister, not a KLA military commander”, the defence attorney said.
Mišetić also pointed to the claims by the former KLA senior members Rustem Mustafa-Remi, Sokol Basota and Bishlim Zirapi, that “Thaçi had nothing to do with the detention centers of the KLA”.
Referring to the testimony of Zirapi, the former chief of the KLA main staff, the defence attorney denied the existence of a criminal association in which Thaçi and his closest associates were members.
According to him, prosecutors did not present any “direct evidence” about the existence of the criminal enterprise.
Mišetić also claimed that prosecutors did not provide any evidence that the KLA commanders, in Thaçi’s presence, had ever made a decision to detain and abuse civilians, whom he treated as “opponents”.
According to Mišetić, the detention centers, where, according to the indictment, crimes were committed, had been formed by the commanders of local “operational zones” of the KLA, not by the main headquarters of the KLA.
Under tribunal rules, the verdict for the four former KLA leaders is expected within 90 days. If the judges require more time, the deadline may be extended by an additional 60 days.
