Today, in front of the trial panel in The Hague, Jakup Krasniqi’s lawyer, Venkateswari Alagendra, again spoke, requesting that Krasniqi be acquitted of all charges in the indictment.
When the defense team’s closing statement concluded today, Alagendra emphasized that Jakup Krasniqi was a strong supporter of the country’s freedom and stressed that he was not the same as Slobodan Milosevic.
“Krasniqi was a respected teacher, active in the LDK leadership in Drenas, a strong and committed supporter of a free Kosovo, as described by Rrustem Mustafa, one of the major activists at the time. He paid dearly for his activism. He spent 10 years as a political prisoner from 1981–1991, where he suffered torture and severe mistreatment under horrific conditions at the hands of the Serbian authorities. He was a long-time opponent of the Serbian regime and is proud of this—not out of hatred for Serbs, but because he opposed the apartheid policies imposed by Milosevic’s Serbian regime against Kosovo Albanians. Jakup Krasniqi is a completely different person; he is not the same as Milosevic or others like him,” she said.
Alagendra added that no witness testified that Jakup Krasniqi was involved in the crimes alleged by the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office (SPO).
“No witness has testified that Krasniqi was perceived as being involved in crimes or in any criminal plan. On the contrary, the claims have not been believed… An undeniable fact is that no credible witness could place Krasniqi in interrogations, mistreatment, or the killing of any civilian. Today, after 232 days of trial, 234 witnesses, and more than 11,000 pieces of material evidence, we return to the same point because the evidence has left the initial defense argument intact… And when a case begins and a trial concludes in the same place, the law allows only one result: acquittal of all charges. Krasniqi is not responsible for the suffering described in this process; the evidence does not show that he ordered, encouraged, supported, or intended to commit crimes against civilians. Criminal justice is not done by inflating a collective tragedy and blaming individuals; it is done through careful attribution to principles, content, and adherence to evidence,” she said.
Before Alagendra’s final remarks, Krasniqi’s other lawyer, Mentor Beqiri, stated that the KLA was not conceived, created, or operated as a criminal instrument and that its development was a response to violence, not a catalyst for it.
“The SPO’s claim that Krasniqi and other KLA members shared a common purpose to take and exercise control over all of Kosovo through committing crimes does not hold when all evidence is analyzed. The evidence presented in this case shows that the KLA was not created as an organization seeking to seize power; it arose as a defensive movement in response to an existential and immediate threat faced by Kosovo Albanians—civilians who suffered widespread oppression and violence by Serbian forces… The KLA was not conceived, created, or operated as a criminal instrument; its development was a response to violence, not a catalyst for it,” he said.
Jakup Krasniqi’s defense team began their closing statement last Friday, while closing statements in the largest trial in The Hague started on February 9 of this year.
This marks the final phase of the largest trial at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague.
The defense teams of Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi, and Jakup Krasniqi have requested that all be acquitted of all counts in the indictment.
They stated before the trial panel that there is no evidence supporting the SPO’s claims of war crimes.
Specialist Chief Prosecutor Kimberly West has requested a 45-year prison sentence for each of the former KLA leaders.
Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi, and Rexhep Selimi face charges brought by the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, which they have described as unfounded. The defense has also rejected these charges, arguing that the KLA did not have an organized command structure.
The trial against them began on April 3, 2023—almost three years after the indictment was confirmed and the former KLA leaders were held at the detention center in The Hague.
