The beginning of the judicial process against Thaçi and others is being delayed because the prosecution is not providing the defense with all the exculpatory evidence, says the lawyer of former president Hashim Thaçi, Gregory Kehoe. He considers that the court should reject the documents that the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office receives from Serbia, while emphasizing that the latter has historically been involved in the fabrication of evidences and witnesses.
In an interview for KosovaPress, lawyer Kehoe talks about the prolongation of the process against the former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army and, according to him, the intention of the prosecution that this trial last longer than that of Milosevic.
He says the indictment is against the KLA and the prosecution is trying to call it a secret organization.
Kehoe invites the international community to turn their eyes to the Special Court and, as he says, see what is happening there.
He also considers that there should be greater attention of the institutions and society in Kosovo for the processes in the Special Court.
Full interview:
KosovaPress: The Kosovo citizens do not understand why the judicial process against the KLA leaders has not yet started?
Gregory Kehoe: The process is not starting because the prosecutor hasn’t been ready to start. If you recall the prosecutor in November of 2020 said they’d be ready to go to trial in six months that’s almost two years ago since that he made that comment, and they’re still not ready. They have not finished their disclosures, they haven’t done everything that’s supposed to do, one of the rules. That’s why this has been delayed.
KosovaPress: Is the defense ready for the trial to begin?
Gregory Kehoe: We’ll be ready to go as soon as they finish giving to us everything we’re entitled to get. This supposed to give us all of the evidence they going to produce, all of the exculpatory evidence, they haven’t.
KosovaPress: It has been said that the trial against the KLA leaders may last longer than the trial against Milosevic. Why?
Gregory Kehoe: That’s a very good question. I don’t think that’s a question that anybody on the defense side can answer it? It shouldn’t be a trial that lasts longer than the Milosevic trial, but that’s what the prosecutor is going to try to advance. And what do I think that means? I think that they’re going to take every incident that took place in Kosovo in 1998, and 1999 and under a “joint criminal enterprise” theory blame these four gentlemen.
KosovaPress: Why is the prosecution hiding exculpatory documents, the list of witnesses, editing materials. Is this a strategy to delay the court process?
Gregory Kehoe: They are arguing that they’re doing it for the safety of these witnesses. That’s the argument that they make, but there has to be some accountability for telling the defense, what these witnesses are going to say, and who these witnesses are. That’s what I was arguing today in court, that’s crucial. So, they want us make concessions about agreements on facts, on law, etc., we can’t make those agreements until they give us all the evidence.
KosovaPress: The prosecutor in Thursday’s session compared the KLA leaders to Serbian criminals. Can such a comparison be made?
Gregory Kehoe: There’s no comparison. They were talking that they filed a document calling the KLA some secret organization. It was not some secret organization. It was an organization trying to liberate the Kosovar Albanians, that’s what it has been, that’s what it always been. But if you look at what they’re doing in the indictment, and if you look at what they filed, they are squarely aiming at the KLA as an organization involved in criminal activity. When in fact what it was trying to do was liberate the Kosovo Albanians in Kosovo.
KosovaPress: In addition to the legal battle, should Kosovo be proactive in diplomacy as well?
Gregory Kehoe: At the end of the day, you have to win in the courtroom, you have to present your case in the courtroom. That’s where that’s going to be won and lost. I invite everybody throughout the International Community to look at what’s going on in this court, and ask themselves, whether or not it’s been fair. My client and the other three gentlemen have been in custody since November of 2020, telling the court at the time that they were going to be in trial and six months. Well, here we are coming on two years, and we’ll probably not going to have a trial in the immediate future. But I invite anybody to look at how this court has conducted itself, and ask themselves, is this fair.
KosovaPress: Should the Court reject the documents coming from Serbia?
Gregory Kehoe: I think so, because obviously documents that are coming from Serbia are questionable. Serbia has historically been involved in false flag operations, have been involved in fabricating evidence, have been involved in fabricating witnesses. So, the argument that we have made is that we’re entitled to know where these evidences come from, and to question who wrote this document, when this document was written, and how you in Serbia got control of this document.
KosovaPress: The prosecution has said that the KLA was a secret and non-state actor. Can it be taken as an indictment against the entire KLA?
Gregory Kehoe: Of course it is. That’s exactly what I was arguing today in the courtroom. It’s an incitement to the entire KLA. The KLA was a force that was trying to liberate and protect the Kosovo Albanians from what was happening from the Serb forces, plain and simple. That’s what they did. The SPO was to turn into something nefarious and bad. It was not, it was an army of liberation.
KosovaPress: The prosecution has said that the victims have been waiting for 20 years to tell their stories in court. What do you think about this?
Gregory Kehoe: It is a proposition with no factual support, EULEX, UNMIK, ICTY, local courts in Prishtina. Some of these witnesses have testified seven times in seven different proceedings. Some of these victims four or five times. So, to say that they’ve been waiting for 20 years is just absolutely not true, and not accurate. And also, it wasn’t because of these four gentlemen that they waited 20 years. It is not their fault that the SPO and the KSC took 20 years to get to this place. But they are paying a price for that, and they sit in jail for almost two years now, in a position that I don’t believe is fair, and I don’t think any objective minded person would think is fair.
KosovaPress: Does the Kosovar institutions and society need to pay more attention to what is happening here in The Hague?
Gregory Kehoe: Absolutely, because this is a Kosovo process, and the people in Kosovo want to ensure that any process is fair. This court may be sitting in The Hague but it is a Kosovo court, and do the people in Kosovo want a court that is unfair and is not transparent, and possibly unjust. No, they don’t. So, should they examine what’s going on here? Should they look and see how business is being conducted in this court? Absolutely.
