Shortened Indictment for Haradinaj
Charges against former Kosovo prime minister and his two co-accused will be streamlined to simplify partial retrial.
Shortened Indictment for Haradinaj
Charges against former Kosovo prime minister and his two co-accused will be streamlined to simplify partial retrial.
The partial retrial for ex-Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj will be based on a shortened indictment, a judge ruled this week during a court hearing at the Hague tribunal.
In late July of this year, appeals judges ruled that Haradinaj - and his two co-accused Lahi Brahimaj and Idriz Balaj - should face a partial retrial on six counts of murder, cruel treatment and torture allegedly committed against Serb civilians and perceived collaborators during the late 1990s conflict in Kosovo.
The current operative indictment contains 37 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, but the parties agreed this week to streamline the current document to focus just on the counts at issue in the partial retrial. The prosecution will file the shortened indictment by the end of October.
The hearing this week focused on how the partial retrial will proceed, since this is the first time in the Hague tribunal’s history that appeals judges have ordered one.
Haradinaj, former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, was initially acquitted in 2008 of all 37 counts against him. One of his co-accused, Idriz Balaj, was also acquitted at that time, while a third co-accused, Lahi Brahimaj, was found guilty of cruel treatment and torture and sentenced to six years in prison.
However, prosecutors appealed against the acquittals, claiming that the trial had been “infected” by witness intimidation. As a result, they said they were unable to secure the testimony of two key witnesses, one of whom, Shefqet Kabashi, still has a contempt case pending against him.
Appeals judges subsequently ruled that all three accused should face a partial retrial on the six counts of murder, cruel treatment and torture. They said that the trial judges “failed to appreciate the gravity of the threat of witness intimidation posed to the trial’s integrity” and placed too much emphasis “on ensuring that the prosecution took no more than its pre-allotted time to present its case…irrespective of the possibility of securing potentially important testimony”.
During this week’s hearing, there was much discussion of what facts and issues the prosecution and defence could agree upon before the partial retrial so as to shorten its length and complexity.
However, all three defence teams insisted that the heart of the retrial will be the testimony of the two witnesses – Kabashi and one who remains protected – who refused to testify during the original trial. It remains to be seen if the two will comply this time around.
“The main focus should be on the two…witnesses,” said Rodney Dixon, one of Haradinaj’s lawyers. He said it was unnecessary to call other witnesses who had already testified to these particular counts and whose evidence could be admitted as is.
Gregory Guy-Smith, who represents Balaj, agreed. “This case is really now about Kabashi and he who is not named,” he said.
The prosecution is due to submit an update on the status of the two witnesses to judges by October 21. Presiding Judge Bokone Justice Moloto also requested that the prosecution file its pretrial brief – as well as its list of witnesses and exhibits - by the end of November.
The defence teams are due to submit their own pretrial briefs by mid-December. Another status conference is currently scheduled for October 26.
When the judge asked after the health and treatment of the three defendants in the United Nations prison, each responded that everything was fine.
Rachel Irwin is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.
