Rexhep Selimi\u2019s defense continued its closing statement before the panel at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague today. Lawyer Eric Tully stated that the term \u201cKLA Military Police\u201d is a thesis of the Specialist Prosecutor\u2019s Office (SPO), intended to create the false impression that a type of police existed under the command of Selimi. He rejected the Prosecution\u2019s claims that his client had control over the KLA police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tully emphasized that the Prosecution has failed to substantiate its arguments against Selimi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe SPO has failed to prove its arguments\u2026 To be clear: the term \u2018KLA police\u2019 is a theory of the SPO, formulated as a container into which the Prosecution could throw as much evidence as possible through inadmissible means to give the false impression that a police force existed and was led by Selimi as Minister of Public Order. This is an SPO attempt to create a misleading impression. However, this argument does not hold. After June 1999, the KLA Military Police remained under the command and within the structures of the KLA, controlled by the area commanders, and not Selimi. There was no such KLA police under the Ministry of Public Order overseen by Selimi as the SPO claims. The lack of operational documents supporting the SPO\u2019s claims regarding the Ministry\u2019s control over the Military Police is significant in this regard. Some documents collected by the SPO do not show that Selimi had any functional authority or exercised control over any police forces,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tully also rejected the Prosecution\u2019s claim that Rexhep Selimi established the Military Police in April 1999, describing these claims as unsupported and false.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe SPO claimed that, alongside Selimi\u2019s appointment in April 1999, the Ministry of Public Order\u2019s police was also created. This is not true. In support of this claim, the SPO in the final indictment refers only to paragraph 21 of certain meeting minutes\u2026 No confirming evidence has been presented by witnesses or the SPO to support such a claim. In fact, this claim is contradicted by the content of the evidence itself\u2026The SPO\u2019s claim that Selimi established the Ministry of Public Order\u2019s police in April 1999 is unsupported and false,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The presentation of closing statements by Rexhep Selimi\u2019s defense team began yesterday. After the conclusion of Selimi\u2019s defense today, it will be Jakup Krasniqi\u2019s turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Former senior officials of the Kosovo Liberation Army will also have the opportunity on Wednesday to address the court for the final time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today marks the fifth day since the parties began delivering their closing statements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This phase began with submissions from the Specialist Prosecutor\u2019s Office, where Chief Prosecutor Kimberly West requested prison sentences of up to 45 years for the four former KLA leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last night, the Assembly of Kosovo adopted a resolution calling for a fair trial at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hashim Tha\u00e7i, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi, and Rexhep Selimi are facing charges brought by the Specialist Prosecutor\u2019s Office, which they have described as unfounded. The defense has also rejected these accusations and argued that the KLA did not have an organized command structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their trial began on April 3, 2023 \u2014 nearly three years after the indictment was confirmed \u2014 during which time the former KLA leaders have been held at the detention center in The Hague.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rexhep Selimi\u2019s defense continued its closing statement before the panel at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague today. Lawyer Eric Tully stated that the term \u201cKLA Military Police\u201d is a thesis of the Specialist Prosecutor\u2019s Office (SPO), intended to create the false impression that a type of police existed under the command of Selimi. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":80263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[296],"tags":[2302,693,7505],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80261"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80261"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80265,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80261\/revisions\/80265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}