Thaci trial continues: Protected witness on early crimes behind closed doors

Together with Thaci, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi were accused of crimes against Albanians, Serbs and Roma in more than 40 KLA detention centers. All of them were leading members of the KLA Main Staff during the war in Kosovo.

The witness under code 3780 testifies in a closed session, which is the highest level of identity protection before the Specialized Chambers of Kosovo, as the court is officially called. From the court documents, previously published on the official website, it follows that witness 3780 testifies, among other things, about the murder of 25 Serbs at the hands of the KLA on July 27 and 28, 1998, near the Volujak cave, where their bodies were later found.

According to the indictment, the KLA previously, during and after the attack on Orahovac on July 17, 1998, abducted those victims in that town and its surroundings, and then transferred them to detention center in Mališevo.

Today's witness, according to court records, testifies about the "arbitrary deprivation of liberty and detention" of at least 48 people, mostly Serbs from Orahovac, in the police station in Mališevo, between July 16 and 27, 1998.

In one submission, it is written that witness 3780 should testify "about the circumstances of the detention, enforced disappearance or murder of the direct victims". According to the indictment, "in July 1998, immediately after the KLA attack on Orahovac and the surrounding villages, during which Serbian civilians were captured, several members of the KLA Main Staff, including Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veseli and Rexhep Selimi, were present in the area, participating in operations and coordinating them".

"Since, at the end of July 1998, some detainees previously abducted in Orahovac and its surroundings and in other locations were transferred to the former police station in Mališevo, Jakup Krasniqi was identified as one of those present at the scene who, on one occasion, visited the room where the detainees were kept," the indictment reads.

Today's witness is the 82nd since the start of the trial, on April 3, 2023. The prosecutors, according to the judge's decision, must complete the presentation of evidence by April 2025.

The 10-count indictment charges Thaci, Veseli, Selimi and Krasniqi with: persecution on political and ethnic grounds, imprisonment, illegal arrest and detention, other inhumane acts, cruel treatment, enforced disappearance, two counts of torture and two counts of murder.

According to the indictment, members of the KLA under the command of the accused committed the aforementioned crimes in 42 illegal detention centers of the KLA in Kosovo and Albania against approximately 407 detainees, of whom at least 102 were killed, from March 1998 to September 1999.

The indictment identified 75 victims - 51 Serbian, 23 Albanian and one Roma. Six counts of the indictment accuse Thaci, Veseli, Selimi and Kransiqi of crimes against humanity, and four counts of war crimes.

According to the indictment, Thaci, Veseli, Selimi and Krasniqi were participants in a joint criminal enterprise. The goal of that criminal enterprise was to take control over the whole of Kosovo by violence against all whom the KLA considered "adversaries".

KLA officers Azem Sula, Lah Brahimaj, Fatmir Limaj, Sulejman Selimi, Rustem Mustafa, Shukri Buja, Latif Gashi and Sabit Geci are also listed as accomplices in the criminal association.

All the accused have pleaded not guilty. They have been detained in The Hague since their arrest in Kosovo in November 2020.