Kosovo War Crimes Trial: Prosecutors Accuse Defendants of Witness Manipulation

Former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, including ex-President Hashim Thaci, face restrictions in The Hague amid allegations of witness interference.

Prosecutors are seeking to restrict visits to three former Kosovo Liberation Army leaders who are on trial in The Hague for war crimes, accusing them of trying to manipulate witnesses and leak confidential testimony.
The suspects, including former President Hashim Thaci, ex-Parliament Speaker Kadri Veseli, and ex-legislator Rexhep Selimi, 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 Kosovo Specialist Chambers, seated in the Netherlands and staffed by international judges and lawyers, was set up in 2015 to handle cases under Kosovo law against ex-Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrillas.