Author: Fatos Bitisi
PRISTINA, Feb 18 (Reuters) – Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci told judges at his war crimes trial in The Hague on Wednesday that justice would not be served by “prosecuting innocent people”.
Thaci and three other former KLA commanders are accused of persecution, murder, torture and forced disappearances during and immediately after the 1998-99 uprising that ultimately led to the Albanian-majority region’s independence from Serbia.
They deny all charges.
“Justice for victims cannot be achieved by prosecuting the innocent, and reconciliation cannot be achieved through selective and race-based prosecutions,” Tudge said in his final comments to the court before sentencing, which is expected to be handed down within three months.
Thaci, 57, called prosecutors’ accusations that he and his co-defendants orchestrated a violent campaign to win political control of Kosovo “untrue, completely ridiculous and deeply offensive.”
His defense team said there was no evidence linking Thaci directly to any of the alleged crimes and insufficient evidence that he controlled other KLA commanders.
Last week, prosecutors sought 45 years in prison for Thaci and his co-defendants after a nearly three-year trial.
They say more than 100 political opponents and people believed to be collaborating with Serbian security forces were killed and hundreds were tortured in 1998 and 1999 in some 50 detention camps run by the Kosovo Liberation Army.
Thaci and three other defendants – former speakers Jakup Krasnic and Kadri Vesely and former MP Rexhep Selimi – were arrested in 2020 and sent to stand trial at the Special War Crimes Court in Kosovo, The Hague.
More than 13,000 people, mostly Kosovar Albanians, are believed to have died during the rebellion in the late 1990s, when Kosovo was still a province of Serbia under then-President Slobodan Milosevic, whose troops violently suppressed Albanians.
The leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army is considered a national liberation hero by many in Kosovo. Thousands of people rallied in the capital Pristina on Tuesday in support of the former Kosovo Liberation Army commander.
(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Gareth Jones)
