Preliminary hearings on Haradinaj case and witness intimidation begin in The Hague
The Special Court for Kosovo in The Hague has begun a preliminary hearing in the case of the head and deputy of the “Commonwealth of Veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK)” Hisni Gutsati and Nasim Haradinaj.
Both are accused of intimidating witnesses, contempt of court and obstructing the work of the Special Prosecutor's Office by disclosing the identities of witnesses, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Haradinaj and Gutsati waived their right to participate in the hearing and are represented by three lawyers each. The trial is being conducted by a three-member panel chaired by Judge Charles Smith. According to the latter, preliminary hearings will be held today and tomorrow.
Previously a representative of the Haradinaev criminal clan, a cousin of a war criminal acquitted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the same Hague Ramusha Haradinaj – Nasim Haradinaj stated that do not recognize powers of the Special Court for Kosovo. And last July claimedthat his organization, uniting elderly militants, will take the initiative to dissolve this institution.
“I killed Serbian soldiers at every opportunity. I tell my family that I regret not killing more. I’m sorry that my friends were killed, but I’m glad that I killed the Serbs,” he confessed earlier in an interview with the Kosovo portal.
Deputy Chairman of the Organization of Veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) Nasim Haradinaj was arrested in September last year, following his boss Hisni Gutsati in Pristina after the leak of the indictment dossier of the Special Court for Kosovo in The Hague.
Arrest of Nasim Haradinaj
Arrest of Khisni Gutsati
A few days earlier, the militants announced that they had 260 pages in their hands indictment Special Prosecutor's Office of the Special Court for Kosovo in relation to the "President" of Kosovo Hashim Thaçi and other Albanian commanders, with the names of prosecution witnesses.
The documents released concerned the murder of at least 80 people, torture and abuse in the secret prisons of bandits, as well as political reprisals (after the army, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Yugoslav authorities left Kosovo) of their political opponents, representatives of the nationalist intelligentsia who did not participate in the armed struggle from the Democratic League of Kosovo.
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