Hague Prosecutors Seek Six Years for Hashim Thaci
Prosecutors at the Hague tribunal have asked for a six-year prison sentence for Hashim Thaci over witness tampering, while the defense is seeking acquittal on every count of the indictment.
On September 10, prosecutors from the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office (SPO) asked the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) in The Hague to find Hashim Thaci guilty and sentence him to six years in prison, in proceedings over offenses against the administration of justice that are being heard separately from the main war crimes trial. The request came from prosecutor Joshua Hafetz at the close of the SPO’s closing statement, and concerns charges of obstructing justice and attempting to influence witnesses.
Alongside Thaci, the prosecution is also seeking sentences for four co-defendants: three years in prison each for Bashkim Smakaj, Isni Kilaj and Fadil Fazliu, and nine months for Hajredin Kuci. The SPO asked Judge Christopher Gosnell to find all five defendants guilty on every count of the indictment that applies to them.
In his closing statement, Hafetz said:
“Based on all the evidence and the facts, the prosecution asks you, Your Honor, to hand down the only verdict that would be consistent with the law, as well as with the evidence and these facts, that is, to find them guilty on all counts of the indictment, given the gravity and severity of the crimes and the overall factors taken into account when determining a sentence in this case and in relation to these defendants.”
Hafetz also said that, in the SPO’s view, the charges had been proven beyond reasonable doubt, and that the attempts to influence witnesses represented a serious threat to the proper functioning of the justice system.
The prosecution’s case rests on 28 hours of recordings made during nine visits to Thaci in the detention unit over a four-month period. According to the prosecution, Thaci lowered his voice during some of the conversations and whispered instructions to visitors related to witnesses in the main case, and coordinated several smaller groups through whom he allegedly tried to influence how certain witnesses would testify. Among the witnesses named were former KLA commanders Rustem Mustafa, known as Remi, and Bislim Zyrapi.
Thaci’s defense counsel, Sophie Menegon, rejected the prosecution’s arguments and asked for an acquittal on all counts of the indictment. Menegon argued that the legal and factual basis of the charges was weak, and that the SPO had failed to prove that the conversations from the detention unit led to any improper influence over witnesses. The defense also criticized the extent of the surveillance Thaci was subjected to in detention, including the covert recording of his conversations and phone calls, arguing that the SPO’s request was an attempt to justify the invasive measures applied to him for months.
The prosecution specifically asked that, should Thaci also be convicted in the main case for war crimes and crimes against humanity, he serve the sentence from these proceedings only after any sentence from that case, meaning the two sentences would run consecutively rather than one being absorbed into the other.
The obstruction of justice case is being heard separately from the main trial of Thaci, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi for war crimes and crimes against humanity, in which the prosecution has previously requested 45-year prison sentences for each of the four defendants, while the defense is seeking acquittals. The first-instance verdict in that main case is scheduled to be delivered on September 16 at 10 a.m. Srpske vesti has previously reported on the evidence presented by the prosecution in these proceedings, including the aforementioned 28 hours of recordings.
Closing statements in the obstruction of justice case continue today and on September 14, when the defense is also expected to conclude its presentation before Judge Gosnell.
