Gashi: Trial of Thaci and others at the beginning; neither side will be satisfied with the epilogue

Three years after the indictment against former Kosovo President and leader of the KLA Hashim Thaci and others was confirmed before the Specialist Chambers in The Hague, it is not clear what the outcome will be, and lawyer Tome Gashi emphasizes that the trial could last from five to ten years and that Serbs or Albanians will not be satisfied with the verdict depending on whether they will be acquitted or charged.

The indictment against Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi, and Rexhep Selimi was filed on April 24, 2020, and confirmed on November 5 for the trial to begin in April 2023. Witness examination by the prosecutor's office is currently underway.

Lawyer Tom Gashi is convinced that the proceedings will take a long time.

"The Special Court has announced that the examination of the prosecutor's witnesses alone will take more than two years, so I think it will be one of the cases that will last more than five years. In my opinion, between five and ten years, because we have a three-tier court, just like we do with the laws of the Republic of Kosovo. In this situation, the trial is conducted there, like in a first-instance court, so both the prosecutor and the accused have the right to appeal to the second-instance court if they are not satisfied with the verdict that will be rendered, and after that, they have the right to send it to the third-instance court," Gashi says.

No one can predict the outcome of the trial, Gashi claims, however, as he says, it is clear that either Serbs or Albanians will be dissatisfied.

"We are only at the beginning of the trial, and I think there was no reason to establish the Special Court. Perhaps the court should have been located on the territory of the Republic of Kosovo or to be some international court that would accuse, after an investigation, anyone who committed the criminal act of war crimes and other serious criminal acts related to the war in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999, rather than being a mono-national court. So, in my opinion, if KLA members are declared guilty, Albanians will not trust those judgments, and if they are acquitted, Serbs will not trust those judgments, so it absolutely helps no one because not everyone in Kosovo will believe the judgments that this court will make," Gashi said.

He points out that the Hague Tribunal tried everyone from the territory of the former Yugoslavia who committed crimes, and people believed in that court, which, as he says, is not the case with the Special Court, which is, in his opinion, mono-national.

Gashi also believes that the process before this court will not close a historical chapter.

"I think it should be completely different; there was an opportunity to extend the deadline for the court in The Hague for the former Yugoslavia or to create another court, an international court, which would deal with all those who committed war crimes during the war in Kosovo, not just one nation. That is the biggest mistake that has been made, and I think it will not contribute to some peace in Kosovo, considering that there are still tensions between Serbs and Albanians, even though 25 years have passed since the war. I think the situation is quite clear; there was no need for the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo to create a mono-national court," Gashi concluded.