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The force of the prosecution against Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselji and other more powerful and cruel figures of the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) depends critically on the personal safety of the prosecution witnesses and resistance to the increasing pressure to testify . The protection of witnesses in these trials is fundamental, given the seriousness of the crimes and the previous experiences in which the accusations against the executioners were dropped due to fierce threats to the witnesses and their families, but also their disappearance and even their liquidation, Kurir’s interlocutors warn.
Lawyer Tomislav Visnjic, who dealt with the crimes committed in Kosovo and Metohija at the Hague court, told Kurir that there were real reasons for concern for the safety of the witnesses:
– Certain data has already reached the public and that evidently shows that there is some kind of pressure. The issue of witness protection is based on two levels. Their safety must be guaranteed while they are at home and at the time of testifying, which may be in the Netherlands. There is a special court service, which must work in coordination with the local police in the territory where the witnesses live. Obviously, given everything that has happened to witnesses before, there is real cause for concern. I noticed that the defenses of the new defendants are coordinated, they are directed from a center and there will be no jumps.
Serious crimes in the indictment killed, abused and tortured hundreds of Serbs
Former KLA officers Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselji, Redzep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi have been indicted before the KLA Crimes Tribunal in The Hague for crimes committed in 34 illegal arrests in Kosovo and Albania against at least 407 detainees, of which of which at least 98 have been murdered from March 1998 to September 1999. The 10-count indictment accuses Thaci and others of political and ethnic persecution, imprisonment, illegal arrest, detention, torture and cruel treatment.
Lawyer Branko Lukić recently recalled on the TV Kurir program “Usijanje” that some 40 witnesses disappeared in the trial against Ramush Haradinaj.
– There is a real danger that the witness will be eliminated. It is very difficult to convict someone without real witnesses – Lukic warned.
The Chairman of the Assembly Committee for Kosovo and Metohija, Milovan Drecun, told our newspaper that the experience of the Haradinaj case tells us that we must be extremely careful: Thaci and others face very serious accusations and there is no doubt that they will try, at least, compromise the witnesses. All this requires great caution, because it is known how Albanian society works. Various unlawful pressures on witnesses and their families are possible in the form of warnings, intimidation, offers of settlement and the like.
Good conditions, but … They complain about the price of the call
Although conditions in the Special Court in The Hague, where there are currently seven former KLA members, are good, some of the costs are paid by the prisoners themselves, writes Gazeta Express. The family of the vice president of the KLA war veterans organization, Nasim Haradinaj, said that so far Haradinaj has spent about 500 euros on phone calls and that calls to Kosovo are very expensive.
Kurir.rs/Ivana Kljajić
EPA Photo
delivery courier
Author: Ivana Kljajić
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