23.07.2021 – 13:39
Former President Hashim Thaçi’s lawyer, Gregory Keohe, said that he had sent his petitions to the Court to release Thaçi from custody. In his petition sent to the Court, Keohe said that two countries have come out ready to provide guarantees for Thaçi. One of the countries that has come out as a guarantor for Thaci’s release is also a contributing country to the Specials.
Most importantly, since the First Decision, the defense of Mr Thaçi has now received written guarantees from two countries (“Third States”), one of which is a contributing state, to facilitate the release of Mr Thaçi. Thaçi in their respective territories “, it is said in Keohe’s submission.
Meanwhile, the lawyer did not disclose the countries that have offered guarantees for Thaçi’s release. He also added that the Specialized Prosecution has completely removed the time context of the start of the trial.
“Since the decision of the pre-trial judge on January 22, 2021 that the conditions for detention on remand were met, the circumstances of these proceedings and Mr. Thaçi, they have changed significantly. After voluntarily resigning from the Office of the President on November 5, 2020 and surrendering to the DSK detention center, Mr. Thaçi has now spent almost eight months in prison. The SPO’s original claim that it would be able to meet its intelligence obligations to allow the trial to begin in the summer of 2021 has been exposed as a monumental misinterpretation (or miscalculation) on its part, at the pace of the discovery of the SPO that is likely to delay the trial until mid-2022. During this eight-month period, the area of political support for Mr. Thaçi and his influence in Kosovo have largely evaporated, with the February 2021 elections placing the former President in the weakest position of his political career. At the same time, the pre-trial judge has decided what can easily be described as the broader regime of witness protection imposed before a Kosovar or international court “, it is said in Keohe’s submission.
Meanwhile, so far the Kosovo government has not taken any action to release former KLA leaders from detention. The government has refused to issue bail to any of the former officials being held in custody in The Hague.
