At the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, the testimony of James Rubin is continuing. During the war in Kosovo, he was the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State. His testimony is in defense of the former President of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi.
His testimony is continuing with questions from the Office of the Specialized Prosecutor.
On the second day of his testimony, James Rubin is accompanied by a representative of the United States of America.
The defense witness, James Rubin, said that “until they understood the situation better,” the United States of America described the KLA as “an organization that carried out terrorist activities.”
“Maybe we violated the desire to always be on the side of the angels, because for a certain period of time, until we understood the situation better, we initially described the KLA as an organization that carried out terrorist activities. And of course, with all the desire we had to be on the side of the angels, we did not want to be associated with or support those who carried out or engaged in terrorist activities. This position then changed over time, especially after the KLA agreed to the Rambouillet Agreement, and then we considered them to be on the side of the angels because they signed the peace agreement,” he stated.
His testimony is continuing with questions from the specialized prosecutor, James Pace.
In his testimony on Monday, James Rubin recalled meetings with the former President of Kosovo, while rejecting claims that Hashim Thaçi, Jakup Krasniqi, and other KLA leaders had executed or killed people.
Earlier, in response to questions from Jakup Krasniqi’s lawyer, Venketasari Alagenda, Rubin said that the Serbs had always tried to blame the KLA.
James Rubin is the first defense witness for Thaçi, whose team has planned to bring around 11 witnesses to court. Afterwards, the trial will continue with witnesses called by the defense of the former Speaker of the Kosovo Assembly, Jakup Krasniqi.
