The dynamics that characterized the great occasion of the Special
tidings
Express Newspaper
16/09/2026 7:02
Twelve years after the approval of MEP Dick Marty’s report to the Council of Europe, on whose claims the Special Court in The Hague was founded, and three years after they were arrested, the trial of the former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi, began.
On the second day of the trial, on April 4, 2023, the former leaders of the KLA were found not guilty of the charges filed by the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office.
They are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, who, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, acted as a joint criminal enterprise.
“The indictment is completely unsustainable and I declare myself completely innocent”, Thaçi said before the judges.
Veseli was also short in his answer.
“I am completely innocent in all points of the indictment”, he said.
In his answer, Krasniqi also complained about his treatment in detention.
“You are calling us a joint criminal enterprise. I want to declare today that never in my life, in any single case, have I treated people the way you treated me from the prison building to this building,” he said.
And Selimi, in his answer if he feels guilty in the accusation, said that injustice is being done to the Albanian people as well as to him.
“It was a heavy, voluminous indictment, but above all very unfair. Incorrect and unfair to me, but also unfair to the struggle of my people”, said Selimi.
Since April 2023, for two years in a row, the Prosecution called 125 witnesses to testify in the courtroom. Some with voice and figure and many others with strict protective measures.
The written prosecution submitted 131 more testimonies without including the large number of administered evidence, many of which were provided by the state structures of Serbia.
Among the witnesses were also senior figures of the KLA. Many Albanians and Serbs also testified, some of whom stood behind the statements they had given, and some withdrew.
“The moment, the situation, the developments, the family, personal situation, that I was interrogated, 90 percent of the statements I gave after the war I was not normal and able to tell the truth”, said the witness Gjergj Dedaj, a politician for many years.
In order to refute the accusations of the Prosecution, the defense submitted the motion, which was rejected by the trial body. On the same day, two expert witnesses testified for the defense, which represents 155 victims in this process.
They stated that they have analyzed the files of 50 victims participating in this process from a random selection.
They said that their findings depend on the statements of the victims and that they themselves did not do examinations.
Experts have added that according to their report, refugees from the former Yugoslavia had higher rates of mental health problems than those from other war zones.
Internationals who received authorization from the states, through which they served in Kosovo during the war and after its end, are part of this long process.
They testified as witnesses for Thaçi’s defense.
The defense of Veseli and Selim had waived this right, while Krasniqi submitted only a few written testimonies as evidence.
Testimony of Wesley Clark by James Rubin
James Rubin, the former deputy secretary of the American State, Medeleine Albright, called the fact that Thaçi and his co-accused had spent so long in custody an injustice.
“I find it disturbing that someone can be incarcerated for five years before a criminal case can be prosecuted, when these people have voluntarily turned themselves in and been very cooperative with the court,” Rubin said during testimony.
Rubin had called the judges of The Hague as biased and according to him, it seemed that they had already decided early against Thaci.
Meanwhile, General Wesley Clark, during his testimony, said that the KLA was an organization without a real command and control structure. Meanwhile, he left the authority to the area commanders.
“They were groups of fighters at the regional or local level who had gathered, gathered together to defend their community, and someone from the outside was trying to help them get weapons,” Clark said.
These attitudes about the KLA, its structure and the role of Thaçi were joined by other internationals during their testimonies, among whom was the former ambassador Christopher Hill.
During the judicial process, there were numerous statements that cast doubt on the bias of the judging panel in this case.
The defense of the accused submitted a confidential letter to the judges in The Hague, asking them to maintain their impartiality and not to side with the Prosecution.
They even said the accused’s rights to a fair trial and an independent tribunal had been violated and demanded that the panel take measures to ensure impartiality and limit bias against the defense during questioning.
During the process, according to the defense, the jury asked suggestive questions to the witnesses.
The Information Office of the Special Court had also accepted such a thing.
These questions were justified by the fact that they were asked to keep the witness focused.
Another case, which had provoked the reaction of the defense, Thaçi and the opinion in Kosovo, was during the testimony of the last witness of the Prosecution in this case.
According to a document of the DHSK, a former employee of the Detention Unit where the KLA four are detained, was presented as an assistant prosecutor in the session of March 27, 2025.
The defense of the accused requested information about his employment, under suspicion of conflict of interest.
The defense said that this person had regular contact with the four accused, through which he had the opportunity to learn about their daily concerns and had access to privileged information.
In addition, there were public discussions as to whether Enver Sekiraqa, a fugitive from justice in Kosovo, had testified in the Special. This was later proven not to have happened.
Since the Prosecution’s case had ended, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi had requested temporary release, but this was rejected, on the grounds that they could influence witnesses to change their testimonies or withdraw them.
Veseli had sent this request to the Supreme Court, but the decision did not change.
During the process, there were also movements in the composition of the defense teams.
Changes of defense attorneys
Only during 2024, two main lawyers from the two defense teams in this case have left.
On February 14, 2024, Gregory Keohe’s withdrawal from Thaci’s defense team was approved.
And on January 30, 2024, it was made public that Gregory Kehoe, Joe Reeder, Greenberg Legal Associates and members of this company had requested to withdraw from Hashim Thaçi’s defense team on the grounds that their obligations had not been fulfilled.
Regarding this, through a press release, the Ministry of Justice has said that it has an agreement only with the lawyer Luka Mishetiq, to whom it fulfills all obligations, while for the other lawyers who are engaged by Thaçi, they do not have an agreement and for them it is not responsible for the realization of payments.
However, on February 20, 2024, it was announced that Keohe’s place was taken by Luka Mishetiq, who is already leading Thaçi’s defense team.
Whereas, on August 21, 2024, the departure of the main lawyer in Kadri Veseli’s team, Ben Emmerson, was approved.
In the August 21, 2024 decision, it is stated that, during the exchange of letters, Emmerson and Veseli have confirmed their decisions to end their client-attorney relationship, specifying it as an irrevocable termination. Emmerson was replaced by British lawyer Rodney Dixon.
The closing statements in this case were made in February 2026, during which the Prosecution asked for 45 years of imprisonment for each of the accused, while the defense asked for their release, while Selim’s lawyer evaluated the evidence of the Prosecution as “reckless”.
During their final speech, Thaçi said that the KLA was not the state, it was a popular organization for protection from the aggressor and that he was not sure if he would see the family let alone dream of power.
“The fact that we are alive was a coincidence and luck. I returned to my homeland to risk my life for freedom. What control is it about? Who? Control and power were in the iron hands of Slobodan Milosevic. No one else. Albanians did not exercise power. They were oppressed by the power of Slobodan Milosevic. Our mission as a people was clear: survival, freedom and peace,” said Thaçi.
In the closing speech session, Selimi also spoke.
“Although, at the beginning of the submission of its final statement, the prosecution stated that it did not seek the punishment of the General Staff of the KLA during all the time it had available, its target was precisely the General Staff of the KLA, the Liberation Army and in particular its goal which was the independence of Kosovo. It even created the impression that independence itself was being treated as a common criminal goal”, he said.
Jakup Krasniqi has said that the accusations against the former leaders of the General Staff of the KLA are similar to the narratives of those who oppressed the Albanians.
“I do not believe that this accusation serves any justice, especially not the justice that democratic societies claim to achieve. Justice cannot be built on the language of former oppressors. It must rest on reliable evidence and on the truth. The injustice of this case itself is written in the indictment itself,” he said.
However, Kadri Veseli has said that it is with conviction and faith that justice is delayed, but never denied.
“The creation of this court and its functioning until today is the result of a wide debate in my country, but above all what should prevail from it is justice and impartiality in the judgment of the truth and the objective reality on which we have acted. I stand in this process with conviction and faith that the truth has no reason to fear justice and that justice can be delayed, but never denied”, he declared.
Although in its jurisdiction, this Court says that it will prosecute all crimes committed in or by persons connected to Kosovo and the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, it has not yet filed any charges against persons who were not members of the KLA.
During the time spent in custody, Kadri Veseli’s parents died, Hashim Thaçi’s father, while Jakup Krasniqi’s brother died.
During these events, the Special was criticized for the way it had handled requests for humanitarian visits to Kosovo.
Thaçi, Vesel and Selim were also ordered to have privileged visits under the suspicion that Thaçi had given instructions to some people to convey to some witnesses in order to influence their testimony.
As a result of these claims, in 2023 an indictment was filed against him, Bashkim Smakaj, Isni Kilaj, Fadil Fadil and Hajredin Kuçit for obstructing the administration of justice.
In support of the former leaders of the KLA and with the cause of protecting the truth and history of Kosovo, many protests have been organized in Kosovo and other countries.
