Today was the last day that the Special Court accepted evidence from the Prosecution or the defense parties in the trial against Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selim and Jakup Krasniqi.

This indicates that the grand trial for the KLA four is nearing its final phase.

In an interview with KosovaPress, Constitutional Law professor Arsim Bajrami says this process has been complicated and accompanied by "many violations of European human rights standards."

"The Special Court: Between Truth and Deception" is a book published last year by Professor Bajrami, which offers a critical analysis of the functioning, legitimacy and impact of the Special Court on Kosovar society.

"Practically today ends the time when both the prosecution and the defense will be able to submit written evidence or video-recording evidence or other evidence and after today there is no new evidence. What this shows is that the process is being concluded, is being finalized and only the final word remains. Now it is up to the trial body, the trial panel to evaluate each piece of evidence, to weigh the credibility of each piece of evidence, to see the relevance, to see the causal connection of the evidence, and believing that these are the judges who are under oath, who will, have sworn to respect the law, I am deeply convinced that in the end there is no other epilogue than an acquittal, because in fact no element of the indictment has been proven, an indictment that is based on a fiction of a joint criminal enterprise", Bajrami declares for KosovaPress.

Among other things, academic Bajrami says that the trial panel must take into account the convincing evidence of defense witnesses, who during their testimony denied that the KLA had an organizational structure.

"Unfortunately, from the beginning, the court has been accompanied by successive violations, with material and procedural violations. It has not respected international standards for a fair trial. It has not respected Kosovo institutions at all, none of Kosovo's institutions have been partners of this court, while this court has publicly stated that it has continuously cooperated with Serbia, primarily with the Serbian Prosecutor's Office, but also with the Serbian Secret Service, which has always provided fabricated evidence. I want to believe that all this evidence should be assessed as evidence of a hostile state, of an enemy state, and the court will completely reject it, that is, completely reject it. It will not take into account the evidence of Serbian witnesses, nor of witnesses who were prepared or paid for, but will be based on indigenous evidence and will take into account the evidence that comes from very credible world personalities," he says.

Doctor of Law Bajrami emphasizes that after the submission of these files, the process enters the final arguments phase, which are expected to be held from February 9 to 18. With the completion of this phase, the trial is considered officially closed.

"The closing argument is the final stage of a criminal procedure process. They are very important, because we will hear the final statement of the prosecution, which will certainly remain by the indictment and will seek punishment, and then all the accused, including their lawyers, will declare their innocence and this will be a momentum for the conclusion of this trial, which has a lot of weight because during this argument, in fact, the defense will certainly offer again evidence that the prosecution failed to prove or confirm any of the points of the indictment in these five years. And each point of the indictment can be easily dismissed if the court is fully committed to the principles of justice and not to other motives," he says.

After the conclusion of the closing arguments, the judges will have a period of three months to announce the first-instance verdict, with the possibility of an extension for another two months.

Academic Arsim Bajrami says that "any other verdict that is not an acquittal would be an international scandal."

"Since I have been very critical of this court, I have followed it professionally, I have even published, I have done studies, I have visited the Special Court several times, we can say that it is one of the most difficult and unfair trials after the Second World War. These trials have even been far from the standards of the Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which has tried crimes in Croatia, in Bosnia, but also in Kosovo. And any other verdict that is not an acquittal would be a precedent or an international scandal, because in these five years we have not seen any evidence that proves or confirms the accusations that the Kosovo Liberation Army was a joint criminal enterprise. On the contrary, it has waged a defensive war, it has fought in the territory of Kosovo, not outside the territory, and it has been a liberation war, politically oriented towards protecting the population from an organized genocide, but also with the aim of liberating Kosovo and gaining its independence. "her," concludes Bajrami.

The Special Court has so far indicted six people for alleged war crimes: Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi, Rexhep Selimi, Pjetër Shala and Salih Mustafa. Shala has been sentenced to 13 years in prison, while Mustafa has been sentenced to 15 years.

The Specialist Chambers are part of the Kosovo judicial system but operate with international staff in The Hague, Netherlands.

The European Union is the main funder of the Specialist Court, which was established in 2015 by the Kosovo Assembly, following the request of the international community.

Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi are facing charges brought by the Specialized Prosecutor's Office, which they have described as unfounded. The defense has also rejected these charges and argued that the KLA did not have an organized command structure.

Former Kosovo Liberation Army leaders Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi have been in custody in The Hague since November 2020. Their trial began on April 3, 2023 - almost three years after the indictment was confirmed, since when the former KLA leaders have been held in the detention center in The Hague.

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