The West did not ensure the safety of witnesses against the leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army

The Office of the Prosecutor of the Special Court for Kosovo has warned that even protective measures for witnesses against Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Recep Selemi and Jakup Krasniqi do not guarantee their complete safety.

This was reported by Politika, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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“During testimony before the Prosecutor's Office, several potential witnesses, including victims, former members of the UCK and former officials of international organizations in Kosovo such as the OSCE, expressed fears or stated that they had been threatened,” the document posted on the Special Court’s website reads. . – Some witnesses may be relocated, but not all will agree to be relocated. Moreover, other protective measures will not completely eliminate the risk of harassment and intimidation.”

The prosecutor's office stressed that "throughout the investigation, witnesses expressed strong fears several times about what might happen to them because they were telling the truth." And since Thaci and the other defendants will "inevitably discover the identities of the witnesses against them" during the trial, prosecutors say this will "put witnesses at increased risk."

In Kosovo, as the Special Court Prosecutor's Office highlighted, for many years "there was a widespread atmosphere of intimidation and harassment of witnesses in the trials of former UCK members" who were charged with crimes in the same places as those named in the indictment against Hashim Thaçi.

The prosecution cited examples of witnesses in such trials in Kosovo being killed or wounded, having their homes bombed or shot at.

“Members of SHIK (Kosovo Separatist Security Service), who were answerable to field commanders Kadri Veseli and Azem Sulli, were involved in searching for, threatening and bribing witnesses who testified at the Hague Tribunal against former UCK members,” the document says.

Similarly, according to the prosecution, persons working for accused Selimi were involved in the “attempted murder” of witnesses, and Selimi then asked a Kosovo police officer to hand over this evidence to him.

A witness in the trial of Fatmir Limaj at the Hague Tribunal refused to testify due to death threats, prosecutors said. Limaj was once accused of crimes in the Lapushnik camp; the same charges were brought against both Thaci and other participants in the process. The indictment against Thacha lists Limaj as a member of a joint criminal enterprise.

The prosecutor's office recalled that when Ramush Haradinaj was acquitted, the judges of the Hague Tribunal stated that “many witnesses out of fear” refused to testify. Haradinaj was charged with crimes against UCK prisoners in Metohija, and Thaçi, Veseli, Selimi and Krasnići are now accused of the same.

“Attempts to influence potential witnesses, including participants in joint criminal activities, also included their recruitment for positions in the Kosovo government,” prosecutors said.

As an example, the Prosecutor's Office cited the example of the former warlord Suleiman Selimi, named in the indictment, who received a job with the Kosovo "government" as an "adviser" just three days after he was called to The Hague to testify in January 2019 .

After interrogation in The Hague, Selimi was fired due to public protests, but had previously received a salary of more than 15 thousand euros “for nothing.”