Albanian broadcaster Top Channel has published information from an alleged 260-page-long document on war crime investigations against former Kosovo Liberation Army members, including names of suspect top politicians who might face charges.
Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi, Azem Syla, and Jakup Krasniqi are among the politicians reportedly appearing in the document, and who may face charges.
Journalist Muhamed Veliu said they received the voluminous document from a trusted source in the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office in The Hague. He explained that it is an official summary of prosecution investigations and circumstances of alleged crimes, completed in December 2019, which has served as basis for prosecution indictments.
Top Channel will publish selected parts of dossier information throughout the week.
On Tuesday, Top Channel said the dossier contains information on the evidence available to prosecutors, number of alleged victims in the hands of KLA, those killed in detention facilities, as well as names of witnesses.
According to the report, The Hague prosecutors suspect that KLA members have killed 87 persons.
The first chapter of the document focuses on killings resulting from torture, inhuman treatment of people suspected as collaborators of Serbia by the KLA. Other killings took place outside of detention facilities.
Chapter two claims that the KLA members had “a common goal to bring Kosovo under control.” It delves into the creation of KLA and its clash with the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), Kosovo’s traditional political party who had so far refused to take arms against Serbia. The LDK is currently leading the government.
The third chapter is titled “Preparation and implementation of the common goal.” It reportedly shows evidence against senior KLA leadership for alleged crimes committed in several detention centers during the 1998/1999 period.
Azem Syla, Hashim Thaçi, Jakup Krasniqi, Kadri Veseli and Rexhep Selimi could be indicted on the basis of this evidence.
“There is relatively limited evidence of direct participation of those who could potentially be charged with crimes, and the existing evidence is not necessarily related to crimes investigated by the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office with the purpose to raise charges,” prosecutors state in the document, according to Top Channel.
This is the fourth time that investigation dossiers leak from the KSC-SPO in The Hague in the last two weeks. Thousands of dossiers were delivered to the KLA veterans organisation in three previous occasions, the last one on Tuesday, September 22.
On June 24, 2020, the KSC-SPO announced it has filed indictments against President Hashim Thaçi, and former Speaker of Parliament Kadri Veseli, who are both former KLA senior officials.
