Thaçi’s defense: Prosecution disobeyed court order, received pre-trial file four days later

He made this statement at the tenth conference on the progress of the case where Hashim Thaçi, Jakup Krasniqi, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi are being charged with war crimes.

Initially, prosecutor Claire Lawson regarding the release of material 102 (1) (b) stated that the court is aware of a very small number of third-party materials that have been granted extension.

“And the relevant material evidence and related recordings have relevant transcripts. Otherwise the SPO has completed the extraction of materials for rule 102 (1) (b) and translations. “Yesterday we received an official confirmation from the third party in question that he can release the recordings in question and that he will release them to us”, said the prosecutor.

She added that yesterday they were informed that for one of these material evidences related to these, approval has been obtained to give. According to her, this means that there is such material left for which consent remains to be obtained.

She said that a trial is taking place before the trial panel number 1, which continues to release materials that are the object of extraction of materials.

“The prosecutor in that trial has completed the extraction of materials today and it will be mandatory to see if we have fulfilled the entire obligation to issue in this regard,” she said.

Regarding the trial against Salih Mustafa mentioned by the SPO, he said that it is a decision that was taken there.

He said that the prosecution still wants to add documents, which they say have escaped their attention and have been edited without asking the court.

According to him, the deadlines have no value for the prosecution.

“They should have gone to court to edit these documents, but they did it with their own heads, and now we have 132 documents that are placed on us with edits. As always, the SPO edits everything “said lawyer Kehoe.

Whereas, from Kadri Veseli’s defense team, Annie O’Reiley, said that they support Thaçi’s defense submissions.

“The request made by the prosecution in the third paragraph says that further materials were received either late, ie by the end of 2021 and January 2022, or it simply escaped their attention. We need to get from them regarding other materials that will be in their possession in the future to consider if they fall under rule 102 (3) or 102 (1) (3) because we have not received any updates that from summer ”, she said.

Meanwhile, Aidan Elys from Krasniqi’s team said that they support the submissions made, while for the working forum he stated that the first meeting took place.

Meanwhile, the prosecutor stated that at the last conference, the prosecution was informed of the accompanying material evidence and the less edited and unedited document, which are part of package 154 and discussed two other documents and documents of package 155.

Whereas, regarding the number of documents that were mentioned by Thaçi’s defense, he said that the documents that were given before are also included.

Regarding the trial materials of the trial panel 1, she said that the prosecution today has closed the review of these documents and will immediately provide the documents for the defense, but that they can not give a timeline for this.

Regarding the pre-trial file, he said that it was submitted on the 17th in accordance with the set deadline and was notified on the 21st of December in accordance with the work practice.

“The submission was voluminous, there were large appendices that required editing,” she said.

Meanwhile, lawyer Kehoe said that the concern is with the preliminary file, if they decided not to file it within the set deadline and did not get permission.

“What is the logic of having a court order while it is not respected at all. They did not ask permission to submit the file four days later, the prosecution does what it pleases them to do. This is a model that the prosecution uses, this is how it works “, he said.

He further added that the same reasoning applies to 132 documents that were unilaterally edited, adding that they did not take the trouble to ask for permission.

As for Salih Mustafa’s defense, he said that the reason is that the basis is the same as for all witnesses and material evidence, he said that they have not received them yet.

Regarding the pre-trial file, Judge Nicolas Guillou made a statement.

“I think that the file was submitted on January 17 in the evening, while the edited version was submitted on Tuesday, January 21, it is true that it was done late. In the future decision I will mention that they should be submitted on the same day “he said.

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