PRISTINA: Prosecutors are seeking to restrict visits to three former Kosovo Liberation Army leaders who are on trial in The Hague for war crimes because they allegedly tried to manipulate witnesses and leak confidential testimony.
Former Kosovo president Hashim Thaci, Parliament ex-speaker Kadri Veseli and former lawmaker Rexhep Selimi were all top leaders of the KLA which waged Kosovo’s 1998-99 war for independence from Serbia and are now on trial in the Hague.
A document seen by the Associated Press on Thursday showed that prosecutors from the Kosovo Specialist Chambers — a branch of the Kosovo legal system that was set up at The Hague in part due to fears about witness safety and security — had found that individuals visiting the three defendants had later approached protected witnesses “attempting to prevent or influence their testimony.”
Prosecutors have asked that all visits be restricted except those from family members which will be recorded. They’re also seeking to restrict phone calls and written communication and that the defendants be segregated from other inmates.
The restrictions are necessary to prevent any attempts to interfere with witnesses, obstruct or leak their testimony and “further threats to the integrity of the proceedings,” according to the prosecutors.
The three defendants have been in custody since November 2020. Charges against them include murder, torture and persecution allegedly committed across Kosovo and northern Albania from 1998 to September 1999, during and after the war.
The court in The Hague was set up after a 2011 Council of Europe report that alleged KLA fighters trafficked human organs taken from prisoners as well as dead Serbs and fellow ethnic Albanians. The organ harvesting allegations weren’t included in the indictment against Thaci.
Most of the 13,000 people who died in the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo were ethnic Albanians. A 78-day campaign of NATO air strikes against Serbian forces ended the fighting. About 1 million ethnic Albanian Kosovars were driven from their homes.
Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s 2008 independence.
Prosecutors say Kosovar ex-guerrilla leaders on trial for war crimes tried to influence witnesses
https://arab.news/b9aqg
Prosecutors say Kosovar ex-guerrilla leaders on trial for war crimes tried to influence witnesses
- Prosecutors have asked that all visits be restricted except those from family members which will be recorded
- The restrictions are necessary to prevent any attempts to interfere with witnesses, obstruct or leak their testimony
‘Keep dreaming’: NATO chief says Europe can’t defend itself without US
BRUSSELS: NATO chief Mark Rutte warned Monday Europe cannot defend itself without the United States, in the face of calls for the continent to stand on its own feet after tensions over Greenland.
US President Donald Trump roiled the transatlantic alliance by threatening to seize the autonomous Danish territory — before backing off after talks with Rutte last week.
The diplomatic crisis sparked gave fresh momentum to those advocating for Europe to take a tougher line against Trump and break its military reliance on Washington.
“If anyone thinks here again, that the European Union, or Europe as a whole, can defend itself without the US — keep on dreaming. You can’t,” Rutte told lawmakers at the European Parliament.
He said that EU countries would have to double defense spending from the five percent NATO target agreed last year to 10 percent and spend “billions and billions” on building nuclear arms.
“You would lose the ultimate guarantor of our freedom, which is the US nuclear umbrella,” Rutte said. “So hey, good luck.”
The former Dutch prime minister insisted that US commitment to NATO’s Article Five mutual defense clause remained “total,” but that the United States expected European countries to keep spending more on their militaries.
“They need a secure Euro-Atlantic, and they also need a secure Europe. So the US has every interest in NATO,” he said.
The NATO head reiterated his repeated praise for Trump for pressuring reluctant European allies to step up defense spending.
He also appeared to knock back a suggestion floated by the EU’s defense commissioner Andrius Kubilius earlier this month for a possible European defense force that could replace US troops on the continent.
“It will make things more complicated. I think Putin will love it. So think again,” Rutte said.
On Greenland, Rutte said he had agreed with Trump that NATO would “take more responsibility for the defense of the Arctic,” but it was up to Greenlandic and Danish authorities to negotiate over US presence on the island.
“I have no mandate to negotiate on behalf of Denmark, so I didn’t, and I will not,” he said.
Rutte reiterated that he had stressed to Trump the cost paid by NATO allies in Afghanistan after the US leader caused outrage by playing down their contribution.
“For every two American soldiers who paid the ultimate price, one soldier of an ally or a partner, a NATO ally or a partner country, did not return home,” he said.
“I know that America greatly appreciates all the efforts.”
