Gogic: Court proved that KLA leaders were at the scene when victims were killed

Lawyer Nebojsa Perovic assessed that the first-instance verdict against the former KLA leaders was not a fair punishment for the crimes for which they were convicted and that Serbian victims had not received justice as a result, while political scientist Ognjen Gogic believes that this case cannot be compared with the proceedings against Croatian General Ante Gotovina before the Hague Tribunal.

Commenting on the first-instance verdict against Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi, Perovic stressed that the appeals decisions should be awaited, Blic reports.

“It is a first-instance verdict and we must wait for the second-instance verdict. We have extensive experience with international courts, although it is called a Specialist Chamber, there are foreign judges on that court,” Perovic said.

He questioned the way the judges and prosecutors of the Specialist Chambers are selected.

“This is a court and prosecution office whose members were selected through a political process. The EULEX representative in Kosovo and Metohija determined who would be selected as a judge, so the question arises as to whether this is the kind of court it should be,” Perovic said.

Following the first-instance verdict against the former KLA leaders, comparisons emerged with the case of Ante Gotovina, who was initially sentenced to 24 years in prison by the Hague Tribunal before being acquitted on appeal.

Gogic, however, believes that there are significant differences between the two proceedings.

“The court irrefutably proved, through forensic evidence, that the convicted men were at the scene when the victims were killed. Therefore, I do not think that the verdict can be overturned on appeal, as was the case, for example, with Ante Gotovina, where the court relied on some major constructions that it failed to prove, namely that Gotovina must have known about the crimes,” Gogic said.

According to him, the Specialist Chambers focused in the proceedings against the former KLA leaders on what could actually be proven.

“They were not convicted as political leaders but as perpetrators at the scene. There were no major constructions, but the involvement of the convicted men in the crimes was specifically proven,” Gogic assessed.

He added that he found it unusual that some citizens in Pristina were crying over the sentences handed down, while during the reading of the verdict they could hear allegations about the torture of victims.

“I found it strange that some people in Pristina were crying over the sentences imposed on the convicted men, while on the other hand they heard that KLA members had torn out victims' fingernails and broken their arms and legs,” Gogic said.