Judge of the Specialist Chambers in The Hague, Christoph Barthe, was seen dozing off during the presentation of the closing arguments of the defense of the former Speaker of the Assembly of Kosovo, Kadri Veseli.
Meanwhile, at the Special Court hearing, Veseli's defense attorney, Rodney Dixon, stated that the Special Prosecution Office has not presented any evidence supporting the claim of "joint criminal enterprise" against his client.
He criticized the Prosecution's use of an interview with Veseli from 2011, calling it distorted and inappropriate as evidence.
"The SPO has no evidence to support the 'joint criminal enterprise' they allege against my client. And in paragraph four of the file they have a startling submission, where they say what my client said in an interview on February 9, 2011," Dixon said, adding that the interview was given many years after the war and was not under oath.
According to him, the Prosecution has misinterpreted Veseli's statements regarding the KLA structures and the early stages of the conflict, using them to build a "conspiracy theory" without concrete evidence.
"The ZPS is falling further and further and is reaching its end when they try to show that this is evidence of how Veseli contributed to a 'joint criminal enterprise'," the defense attorney stated.
Dixon also rejected the prosecution's claim that the Kosovo Intelligence Service had been operational since April 1999 and that Veseli had been its head. He stressed that the SPO has not produced any evidence proving the operation of the SHIK during that period.
"To say that this is proof that Veseli directed the entire apparatus for identifying collaborators during the war is absurd," Dixon stressed, adding that the Prosecution has based its claims mainly on public interviews, without documentary or factual evidence. /Telegrafi/
