The prosecution, represented by prosecutor Matt Halling, said that the four defendants are guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and should be declared so.
"...they must be found guilty and they are guilty beyond all reasonable doubt," said prosecutor Halling.
The prosecutor previously said that the defendants have maintained and advanced their focus on opponents through statements and regulations. According to him, these resulted in the punishment of these individuals, reports "Oath of Justice".
"The defendants have maintained and advanced the focus of the KLA's earlier years that opponents were paying them a lot of attention in the sense that they were not allowing them to have full control over Kosovo. They have issued public statements and statements that have condemned, threatened and vowed to punish these opponents, and these opponents were ultimately punished," he said.
The prosecutor added that the defendants issued regulations that codified the ruthless treatment that subsequently occurred against opponents.
"They prepared and issued rules and regulations codifying cruel treatment, and then cruel treatment actually occurred in reality. The defendants acted in accordance with the statements they made and directly contributed to some of the crimes charged in the indictment," he said.
Halling said that people who were loyal to these defendants have done the same thing.
"The perpetrators have not been punished because the crimes against opponents were part of what the accused had planned to do from the beginning and this happened everywhere," Halling said.
He said this has happened in over 50 detention centers in Kosovo and northern Albania.
"The documentation and record of this case tell the story that the defendants did what they said they would do, leading us to a position that they should be found guilty and are guilty beyond a reasonable doubt," the prosecutor continued.
This concludes today's session, which will continue on Wednesday, February 18, 2026, where, among other things, statements from the accused will be heard.
ZPS to the trial panel: The defense is telling you not to do your job, not to be judges in this case
Prosecutor Matt Halling said that through their submissions, the defense is telling the jury not to do their job and not to be judges in this case.
“We have heard some new words. While we have checked all the footnotes to be as transparent as possible with the defense…What we have noticed is that their general arguments do not match the general rhetoric. The arguments are as follows; do not freely evaluate the evidence because it is material under Rule 140, paragraph 4; do not solve the inconsistencies but only choose the path of exculpatory evidence; do not ask the witnesses too many questions; do not ignore the opinions of international witnesses who have worked for countries that have decided whether there should be a further tribunal or not; do not overthink the situation,” the prosecutor said.
Prosecutor Halling said this is a clear signal of the aforementioned request by the defense.
"All of this is a clear signal. It's a signal one way or another that is interpreted like this; don't do your job, don't be a judge in this matter," he said.
The prosecutor further said that all court documentation in the case shows that the accused directed and acted with a common criminal intent.
"All court documentation in the case shows that the defendants, through the abuse of their position and the structures they led, acted with a common criminal purpose and significantly contributed to this purpose," Halling said.
The prosecution admits the mistake in the final file: We included Krasniqi in the threats Thaçi had made
Prosecutor Matt Halling admitted that in their final case they had placed Jakup Krasniqi on charges of making threats instead of Hashim Thaci.
"Thaci's defense in the transcript... had found an error in our final file where we had incorrectly placed Krasniqi's contribution and had mistaken it for the threats that Thaci had made. That is, we should not have said that it was a contribution that Krasniqi had made," Halling said.
Halling said they don't want to say they don't make mistakes when implicating people regarding their contributions, but added that none of the judicial evidence they have can be undone.
"We do not want to say that we never make any mistakes when we involve individuals regarding the contribution. However, we cannot undo all the judicial evidence we have," he said.
However, before that, Halling said that Krasniqi was part of the General Staff like all the other defendants.
"Jakup Krasniqi was part of the General Staff like all the accused," he said.
The prosecutor said that the defendants chose to be part of the Headquarters for a long period of time, while the crimes for which the charges are being filed in this court case were taking place.
"They chose to be part of the General Staff for a long period of time while the crimes for which charges are being filed in this court case continued to be committed in accordance with the communications, orders and decisions of the General Staff," the Prosecutor said.
He added that what the General Staff did was individual responsibility.
"What the General Staff did certainly has individual responsibility. The accused do not have to be identified by name in every single piece of evidence we have to conclude that they made a criminal contribution," he said.
He said that it is not true that they have focused only on incriminating evidence and have ignored exculpatory evidence.Oath of Justice
