Shala's statement is redacted for the public at the Appeals hearing

At Friday's hearing at the Appeal Court, Pjetër Shala was given the opportunity to exercise his right to make a statement, but as soon as he began, the hearing switched to redacted content for the public.

Initially, the chair of the panel, Michele Picard, warned Shala that he should not mention confidential information and that if he needed to do so, he should notify her so that it would be kept private.

As a result, Shala said he would not do such a thing since his lawyers had already done something similar. However, the hearing then proceeded with edited content.

"Don't worry, I won't deal with the fact that my lawyers have been involved in the information...", Shala said before the content on the broadcast was edited.

In its submission, the defense reiterated its position that Shala should be acquitted of all counts of the indictment or the case should be retried.

Lawyer Leto Carioulo emphasized that their position is that Shala did not have a direct intention to commit the murder of the victim of the unlawful death, for which he is accused of having committed this act as part of a joint criminal enterprise at the Metal Factory in Kukës during the period covered by the indictment.

"The prosecution's case and their position that Shaka had the direct intention to kill does not hold up," she said.

She said that the defense does not accept that Shala was present when the victim was mistreated or even when he was shot.

"The defense does not accept that Shala was present when the victim was mistreated and shot," she said.

In addition, she said that some of the evidence admitted in this case was unverified and as such cannot be relied upon to reach a guilty verdict.

"She said that a guilty verdict cannot be reached based on unverified evidence," she said.

In addition, she added that the sentence should be within the legally prescribed range of 5 to 15 for the crimes Shala committed and not as much as was determined by the trial panel.

"The sentence should be within the range provided by law from 5 to 15 and not as the trial panel determined with 18 years," she said.

This concludes the Appeal hearing against Shala and in this case, the decision is expected to be made within the period provided for by the Rules of Procedure and Evidence. The decision is expected to be pronounced in a public session.

Maria Radziejowska today, during her submissions, requested that the sentence imposed on Pjeter Shala at the Basic Court of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (DSK) in The Hague be confirmed and that he be found guilty on appeal.

"We ask you to confirm the guilty verdict and the sentence imposed on Mr. Shala," said the victims' advocate at today's Appeals hearing held against Pjetër Shala.

After this, the court went on recess for 20 minutes to return later with Pjetër Shala's defense submissions.

The victims' defense attorney, Simon Laws, during the Appeal hearing against Pjetër Shala, said that there is no basis to overturn the conviction against him.

"There is no reasonable basis to overturn the verdict of Trial Panel 1. On the contrary, they have conducted a careful and fair analysis and have set out in detail the basis for their findings," Laws said.

On behalf of the victims, he said that their testimonies were found to be true and were accepted as such by the trial panel at first instance.

"On behalf of the victims, I want to state clearly that their testimonies were found to be true and accepted by the panel that conducted this trial," he said.

He said that the testimony of witness 1, which the defense challenged, was credible and coherent. He even said that this testimony was supported by other evidence.

Laws said this witness was very careful in his testimony not to incriminate Shala when he was not sure.

For the next submissions, Laws requested a private hearing, which was approved by the Appeals Panel.

The other victims' lawyer, Maria Radziejowska, is also expected to make submissions. /Oath of Justice/