TIRANA, July 13 – The President of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi arrived in the Hague on Monday, to be questioned by the Special Prosecutor’s Office following the announcement of a ten-count indictment against him and Kadri Veseli on war crime charges.
Prior to entering the Prosecutor’s Office, Thaci said he was in The Hague to honor “what I have dreamed of and fought for – an independent Kosovo based on equal rights, a multiethnic society and the rule of law. I am ready to face the new challenge and succeed for my son, my family, my people and my country,” said President Thaçi.
He reiterated that no one can rewrite history, while emphasizing his faith “in peace, truth, reconciliation and justice.”
“I believe in dialogue and good relations with all neighbors. Kosovo is a success story, which I am very proud of. Kosovo’s future is EU membership, NATO and lifelong friendship with the United States,” the President said.
Who is Thaci’s lawyer?
Thaci’s defense lawyer is Pierre-Richard Prosper, an American lawyer, prosecutor and former government official, who served as the second United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005.
From 1996 to late 1998, Prosper served as a war crimes prosecutor for the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. He was appointed lead trial attorney and prosecuted Prosecutor vs. Jean-Paul Akayesu, the first-ever case of genocide under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. In the 14-month trial, he won additional life-sentence convictions for crimes against humanity and broke new ground in international law by convincing the Tribunal to recognize rape committed in time of conflict as an act of genocide and a crime against humanity.
Additionally, Prosper served as a career prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice where he was Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division in 1999. From 1999 to 2001, Prosper was detailed to the State Department where he served as the Special Counsel and Policy Adviser to the previous Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues.
Prosper reported directly to Secretary of State Colin Powell and Condolezza Rice, and advised the President of the United States, the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, the National Security Adviser, the CIA Director and other officials. top of the US government.
Prosper was also nominated for a position on the United Nations Human Rights Committee by Ambassador Nicki Haley.
The indictment
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 Marty 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.
