The lawyers of the former heads of the Kosovo government, accused in The Hague of war crimes when part of the Kosovo Liberation Army, rejected today the accusations, while the prosecutors said that there will soon be plenty of evidence for their guilt.
Former Parliament Speaker Kadri Veseli’s lawyer, Ben Emmerson, has said that the former KLA leaders today stand accused of “joint criminal enterprise” in time of war, but were in fact ordinary farmers and volunteers who organized against the massacre on the Albanians in the former province of Yugoslavia.
“In the context of a constant attack by Serbian and Yugoslav forces, Albanians sporadically organized village after village to protect their communities. This was an act of resistance. In this context, individual crimes may have been committed by KLA leaders, but these are insignificant compared to the massacre of Albanians from Yugoslavia. The only ‘joint criminal enterprise’ that existed was to protect the civilian population from the crimes committed by the Yugoslav regime,” Emmerson said.
Meanwhile the prosecutor of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office said that there are hundreds of witnesses and evidence against the former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which will be gradually released. “The prosecution will submit to the defense 10,000 potentially acquittal materials,” she said.
The lawyers of Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi have demanded that the evidence be presented as soon as possible.
Top Channel
