The Office of the Specialist Prosecutor has no evidence proving that Kadri Veseli had effective control over anyone in Kosovo, nor is there proof supporting the alleged communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was stated by Veseli\u2019s lawyer, Rodney Dixon, following a question from the judge at the Specialist Chambers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLegal obligations do not disappear by themselves due to distance, but we must consider and focus on whether this had any practical impact. We said the Prosecution must prove that my client actually had a commanding role and control over anyone in Kosovo for such an obligation to arise\u2026 He had no effective control over anyone in Kosovo, and practically speaking, it\u2019s impossible to prove that any communications occurred. You\u2019re asking if there is evidence we could provide\u2026 There is no proof that such communications or connections existed. This is a major gap in the Specialist Prosecutor\u2019s Office (SPO); it\u2019s a gap that the prosecution must fill,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, prosecutor Matthew Holing challenged Veseli\u2019s defense, emphasizing that evidence shows Veseli gave instructions even when he was not in Kosovo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat the defense doesn\u2019t understand is that in the early months Kadri Veseli was more active, because from the testimony we received, we saw that he gave instructions even while he was not in Kosovo,\u201d <\/em>he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to questions for Veseli\u2019s defense, Judge Guenawl Mattraux also asked preliminary questions regarding Hashim Thaci.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thaci\u2019s defense, represented by lawyer Luka Misetic, responded regarding SPO witness Bislim Zyrapi. They noted that although the SPO alleges Zyrapi was not part of the alleged Joint Criminal Enterprise (JCE), he was involved everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This response followed Judge Mattraux\u2019s question about Zyrapi\u2019s testimony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAdmissions from Zyrapi given in prior testimony should influence the credibility and reliability that the court must give to his testimony regarding the existence of a prior agreement to commit crimes,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thaci\u2019s lawyer, Misetic, emphasized that the burden of proof rests entirely with the Specialist Prosecutor\u2019s Office and that it is not the court\u2019s or defense\u2019s duty to fill in the SPO\u2019s gaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe burden of proof lies solely with the prosecution\u2026 It is not the duty of the court or the defense to fill in the gaps in their evidence. So my initial response is this: they claim he was not part of the alleged JCE, and that JCE members tried to erase his actions. The evidence cited should not have an impact; even if you argue it does, the SPO has maintained that Zyrapi was not part of the JCE and was left out of the common criminal purpose\u2014yet he was involved everywhere,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Office of the Specialist Prosecutor has no evidence proving that Kadri Veseli had effective control over anyone in Kosovo, nor is there proof supporting the alleged communications. This was stated by Veseli\u2019s lawyer, Rodney Dixon, following a question from the judge at the Specialist Chambers. \u201cLegal obligations do not disappear by themselves due to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":80368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[296],"tags":[431,7501,7541],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80367"}],"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=80367"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80369,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80367\/revisions\/80369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}