It is the largest and perhaps the most important case for which the Special Court was established.
But the prosecution, whose indictment led to the arrest of four of the main figures of the Kosovo Liberation Army, was not sufficiently prepared for its final word on Monday.
On the very day when she was supposed to make clear the request for how many years of imprisonment she wanted to sentence Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi, the special prosecutor, Kimberley West, left the possibility of misunderstanding. This, since the sentence of 45 years was mentioned as the only one. At least in the official translation into Albanian.
"We stand by the fact that we are seeking the punishment of specific individuals, we are not seeking a punishment for the general staff but for specific individuals. Meanwhile, the SPO is seeking a conviction for all counts of the indictment and the imposition of a single sentence of 45 years, based on the individual contributions of the crimes committed or perpetrated by each of the individuals, Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi. These crimes are war crimes and crimes against humanity and are serious in nature and these charges have not lost their value over time, they continue to remain very serious," West was quoted as saying by the translator.
The articulation of the final request confused the media and journalists, some of whom reported that it was a total sentence of 45 years in prison for the four.
However, there was also a large number of those who sought clarification from both the specialized prosecution and the specialized chambers. Therefore, spokesmen Michael Doyle and Christopher Bennet were forced to confirm that these are individual sentences, which in total amount to 180 years for the four former liberators.
Except that the official website did not provide any explanation as to how this ambiguity occurred. /KosovaPress
