The trial of the former leaders of the KLA in The Hague, the judge orders the prosecution to submit the list of the first 40 witnesses by November 18

In the 14th conference on the progress of the case against Thaçi and others, held in the Specialized Chambers of Kosovo in The Hague, the judge ordered the Office of the Specialized Prosecutor (ZPS) to submit a preliminary list of 40 witnesses by November 18, 2022. first that I intend to call them. Also, he ordered...

Also, he has ordered the defense to submit by October 28, 2022 notices of alibi, or grounds that exclude criminal liability, and has ordered the defense to submit notice of any unique investigative opportunity it will use, by October 7, 2022.

"I order, based on rule 95 2e of the regulation, the defense to make a notification by November 18, 2022 if it intends to raise objections in exhaustion with the extracted material, as far as possible.

I order the SPS to submit by October 28, 2022 a notice in the case file of when the redactions in the indictment are planned to be removed in accordance with the current system of protective measures.

I order the ZPS to submit a temporary and preliminary list of the first 40 witnesses that I intend to call in the trial by November 18, 2022", said the judge of the preliminary procedure, reports KP.

Kadi Veseli's defense has requested the appointment of a representative within the Government of Kosovo, who would serve as a point of contact to expedite defense requests, for assistance and information.

According to the defense, this point of contact would be useful, in particular, now that the start of the trial is approaching.

The judge of the preliminary procedure has asked the Administrative Office to contact the relevant authorities in Kosovo to find a solution according to the request of the defense.

Veseli's defense has said that such a request was made during the preparation of the defense.

"This request came up during our preparation work, we have a number of Rule 102 requests that are ready to be sent to the relevant authorities in Kosovo, before we did that we thought it was better to leave the matter here, also because of the volume of information in this trial, which is likely to produce a very large number of requests which means that it will overwhelm and use up a lot of defense and judicial resources.

It also makes sense to transmit confidential information.

These are the main reasons why this request arose, we think it would be very efficient to have a single point of contact that will collect all the defense requests in this regard, and I think it is especially useful because we are getting closer to the start of the trial we need information that will serve as the basis of these requests,

The lawyer of former president Thaçi, Gregory Kehoe, said that it is necessary for the court to have a room where the files that the Specialized Prosecutor's office received from the Kosovar authorities would be placed.

"Our problem is that when we went to the Kosovar authorities and asked for files on criminal cases, they advised us to give the physical copies to the ZPS for a number of materials that we requested, and these materials, these physical copies, are already in the possession of the ZPS -, now to get this information, these materials from the Kosovo authorities, it would be better for the court to have a room here, an office where the ZPS can put all the files it has received from the Kosovo authorities so that we "we see them, and if there is a need to photocopy something from them", said Kehoe.

The judge of the preliminary procedure, Nicolas Guillou, has invited the Administrative Office to contact the relevant authorities and find a solution according to the request of the defense.

He said that they will try to find a solution without the need to issue an order.

The next conference on the progress of the case against Thaçi and others is expected to be held at the end of October.

The indictment against Thaçi and others related to the allegation of war crimes was confirmed on October 26, 2020, while in their first appearances at the Specialized Chambers in The Hague, they pleaded not guilty.

They have been in detention in The Hague since November 2020.

On April 29, the Office of the Specialized Prosecutor submitted an amended indictment against Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selim and Jakup Krasniqi, claiming that the accused have committed war crimes in Gjilan, Budakovo and Semetishte.

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The trial of the former leaders of the KLA in The Hague, the judge orders the prosecution to submit the list of the first 40 witnesses by November 18