Maroevic: Judgment against former KLA leaders not surprising given volume of evidence

Rade Maroevic, editor of the RTS online portal, said that today’s convictions of the former KLA leaders in The Hague were not particularly surprising given the volume of documents and evidence submitted by the Prosecution to the Trial Panel.

Maroevic believes that, through witness testimony and the extensive documentary evidence presented, the Prosecution succeeded in convincing the Court that Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi were guilty.

“This is a first-instance judgment, and we still have to wait for the proceedings to be fully concluded, but I do not think it is particularly surprising given the sheer volume of documents and evidence the Prosecution submitted to the Trial Panel. We had 156 witnesses, 102 bodies and thousands of documents through which the Prosecution has clearly succeeded, at this stage of the proceedings, in convincing the Court that Thaci, Krasniqi, Selimi and Veseli were guilty of what happened,” Maroevic told Kosovo Online.

He expects the Defense to appeal the first-instance judgment, recalling that proceedings before the Hague Tribunal had seen dramatic reversals on appeal.

“We will see how and on what grounds they file their appeals. Some time will now pass while the Defense attempts to identify weaknesses in the judgment and formulate its appeals accordingly. However, 102 bodies, with the Court holding these four KLA leaders responsible for 96 killings, is not insignificant. This represents a substantial number of crimes, including persecution, detention and torture. Moreover, one case that may genuinely have played a role in determining the outcome of these proceedings concerns an Albanian fighter who belonged to a political faction that was close to, but not entirely aligned with, the KLA. He was abducted, detained and taken away, and was last seen in the company of Hashim Thaci. That may have been a turning point in this trial, alongside, of course, the 96 other people who were killed, most of them for no apparent reason,” Maroevic said.

The judgment was followed by strong reactions in Pristina, and Maroevic said the Kosovo Police and KFOR should ensure the safety of Serbs, adding that no major incidents should occur.

“That is really the responsibility of the police and KFOR. It must not be allowed to happen. Today, we saw the disappointed crowd simply disperse from the square in Pristina. There were some incidents in The Hague, but realistically, Kosovo’s political scene has been fairly divided from the very beginning. From the moment those KLA figures entered politics, their rival was Ibrahim Rugova’s Democratic League of Kosovo, and as long as Rugova was alive, they never managed to defeat him. In Kosovo itself, Rugova’s political vision had more supporters than Thaci’s,” Maroevic said.

Maroevic believes the judgment could also serve as a kind of “purgatory” for Kosovo’s political scene at this point.

“Whether there will be incidents really depends on the police, the Kosovo authorities and, of course, KFOR. We will see how capable all those institutions are of keeping the situation under control. However, judging by the immediate reaction, there has been almost nothing so far,” Maroevic said.

Asked whether today’s judgment benefited Kurti, Maroevic recalled that “Albin Kurti has been the most popular Kosovo politician since the death of Ibrahim Rugova,” adding that the question was largely a matter of speculation.

“He has received a number of votes that no one other than Rugova ever managed to secure. Whether Thaci would have been able to shake Kurti’s position even if he had been acquitted today is really a matter of speculation. It is a very open question. Over the 27 years since the end of the war, circumstances in Kosovo have changed dramatically, and those changes have worked in Albin Kurti’s favor. He is now genuinely the key figure on Kosovo’s political scene. Whether that is good or bad for Kosovo is another question, but the essence is that the political parties that emerged from the KLA no longer enjoy the popularity they once had, and even immediately after the war they never managed to defeat the Democratic League of Kosovo,” Maroevic said.

Hashim Thaci and Jakup Krasniqi were sentenced at first instance today to 25 years’ imprisonment each for war crimes. Kadri Veseli was sentenced to 18 years, while Rexhep Selimi received a 13-year prison sentence.