TIRANA, July 17 – Kosovo’s President Hashim Thaci has denied committing any war crimes after being questioned for four days in a row by the Special Prosecutor’s Office in the Hague.
Shortly after he stepped out of the SPO on Thursday evening, Thaci said that he was pleased to have given evidence during the four day long questioning, “on all issues related to my activity during the war period, and my efforts for peace, stability, development and progress.”
Thaci said that he gave prosecutors “information about my role, my responsibilities during the war” and that it is now “up to the prosecutor and the judge to evaluate my testimonies impartially.”
“If they do it professionally, they can easily conclude that I have not committed any war crimes,” he added.
Kosovo’s President Hashim Thaci was indicted on war crimes and crimes against humanity charges, by a special international prosecutor in The Hague, only three days before the special summit with Serbia was due to take place at the White House.
According to a statement released by the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office (SPO), the latter has “filed a ten-count Indictment with the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) for the Court’s consideration, charging Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veseli, and others with a range of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, enforced disappearance of persons, persecution, and torture.” Based on the indictment filed on April 24, President Thaçi, Kosovo DP leader Kadri Veseli and the others are responsible for nearly 100 murders, involving victims of Kosovo Albanian, Serb, Roma, and other ethnicities in addition to including political opponents.
The Special Court, which operates in The Hague under the name Specialized Chambers, was approved in early August 2015 by the Kosovo parliament.
The reason for its establishment followed investigations into allegations by Council of Europe envoy Dick Martty about the involvement of some of the former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army in war crimes and post-war Kosovo. Investigations such as the establishment of the court had provoked reactions and protests in Kosovo, claiming that in this way equality with the atrocities of Serbian forces was taking place during the 1998-1999 war, which ended with the intervention of NATO.
Over 200 former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army have been questioned since the beginning of 2019. In July 2019, former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj was summoned to the special prosecutor’s office, who resigned, bringing the country to early elections.
