When Hajrush Kurtaj, a former brigade commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), took the witness stand at the Special Court in The Hague, he was primarily questioned about his 2017 book, “Unquenchable Flame.”
In this book — which the Hague Specialist Prosecutor’s Office used as evidence in the trial of the “KLA Four”; Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi — Kurtaj described, among other things, the organizational structure and functioning of KLA operational zones and brigades.
“It is exaggerated, embellished. In every book, things are embellished and changed,” he said in February 2024, during his testimony in The Hague.
Following Kurtaj, Skënder Zhitia — a former KLA member from the Llapi area — was also questioned about one of his books. In the courtroom, Zhitia stated that his book, which discussed the organization of the KLA in the Llap region, had been misused.
“Lawyers, but also prosecutors, have extracted words and sentences from the entirety of my book, which have conveyed a misleading message to the public,” Zhitia stated in August 2024.
Kurtaj and Zhitia are just two of many witnesses in this case who have been questioned and confronted with various pieces of evidence related to the structure, hierarchy and organization of the KLA. Some have been asked about books they authored in the past, which the prosecution is using as part of its case.
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers, which include the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, widely known as the Kosovo Specialist Court, were approved by the Kosovo Assembly in August 2015. The court was established to address allegations raised in the report “Inhuman Treatment of People and Illicit Trafficking in Human Organs in Kosovo,” authored by Dick Marty, a former member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The report presented a series of allegations against former KLA members for war crimes and other offenses committed between January 1998 and December 2000. In 2014, the former head of the investigation team, Clint Williamson, stated that while no evidence of organ trafficking had been found, there was evidence of other alleged crimes. As a result, the process of establishing the Kosovo Specialist Chambers continued.
The Kosovo Specialist Court aims to prove what it claims was the regular hierarchy of the KLA in order to support its accusation that the “KLA Four” — even if not directly involved in the commission of various crimes — are responsible through inaction for acts that include six counts of crimes against humanity and four counts of war crimes, committed between March 1998 and September 1999.
Thaçi, Veseli, Selimi and Krasniqi surrendered and were subsequently transferred to The Hague in November 2020, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, as part of what the prosecution refers to as a “joint criminal enterprise.”
For four and a half years, they have been held in detention at the facility located in the Scheveningen district of The Hague, in the Netherlands, without the possibility of preparing their defense in freedom. They were also detained for two and a half years before the trial began, which did not commence until April 2023.
By November 2025, five years after the four surrendered and were transferred to The Hague, the trial will enter its final phase. The prosecution has concluded its presentation of witnesses — 125 in total since April 2023 — and has submitted all its evidence. Over the course of the proceedings, a total of 154 individuals have been granted victim status.
However, toward the end of its case, the prosecution encountered several challenges. In at least one instance, according to public documents from the Kosovo Specialist Court, the prosecution lost contact with a witness; some witnesses refused to testify, while others faced health issues. Before concluding its case, the prosecution submitted thousands of pages of materials and documents as evidentiary exhibits. Among them are documents obtained from Serbia, which, according to the prosecution, were confiscated by Serbian authorities during the war from KLA bases. The evidence pertains to the KLA’s General Staff, the functioning of operational zones, reports and decisions issued by certain zones for media communication at the time, the procurement of weapons, KLA press releases and other related materials.
The admission of evidence from Serbia has been consistently criticized by the defense lawyers of the four, who argue that it lacks credibility, as some of the documents are unsigned, unsealed and lack identifiable authors.
Despite these objections, the prosecution has concluded its case, paving the way for the defense teams and victims’ representatives to present their own cases, evidence and witnesses.
Now it’s the defense’s turn
The completion of the prosecutor’s presentation of evidence and witnesses in The Hague has cleared the way for the defense teams of the four to begin preparing their case. However, before presenting their own evidence and witnesses, the defense is expected — according to reports — to pursue another legal option: filing a motion to dismiss some or all of the charges in the indictment.
Lawyers for the former KLA leaders have argued that the prosecution has failed to prove its case — particularly the connection between the accused and the crimes they are charged with. In fact, Thaçi’s lawyer, Luka Mišetić, stated at a press conference in The Hague in April of this year that he still does not understand why his client has been charged.
“We are convinced of the outcome for Mr. Thaçi, and the only thing left now is to move through the remaining stages of the process as quickly as possible and obtain a verdict,” said Mišetić. “Our clients have been held in detention for an extremely long time.”
However, the motion — along with the judges’ pending decision — is expected to cause further delays in the proceedings. The judges had ordered that the motion be filed within two weeks of the prosecution’s final submission of evidence. Since the last decision to admit evidence was issued on May 29, the defense is expected to have until mid-June to file the motion. Once submitted, the prosecution will have 30 days to respond. After both parties have presented their arguments, the judges’ ruling is also expected to take additional time.
As a result, even in this phase, the lawyers find themselves caught between two pressures: the urgency to move the process forward — knowing that their clients have been in detention for nearly five years — and the need to undertake certain procedural steps, such as filing a motion to dismiss some or all of the charges, which require time.
“We are committed to ensuring that these steps are completed without delay, so that the final judgment can be issued as soon as possible,” stated Krasniqi’s lawyer, Venkateswari Alagendra, in April.
The current situation presents three paths to the continuation of the trial, all dependent on the judges’ decision on the pending motion.
First, if a motion to dismiss the entire indictment is filed and accepted, the trial ends. Second, if a motion to dismiss some counts is filed and accepted, the trial will radically change its course: some of the charges are dropped, the number of witnesses and defense evidence is reduced, and the trial is shortened. Conversely, if this motion is denied and the charges are not dismissed, then the trial is prolonged. The lawyers of the four and the victims present their cases, including witnesses and evidence, which takes time.
If the motion to dismiss the charges is denied, Thaçi’s defense has announced its intention to call up to 10 witnesses, a number that other defense teams are also expected to match. As previously stated before the start of the trial, Thaçi’s defense witnesses are likely to include well-known international figures who were active in Kosovo during the years 1998–2000.
These include Bernard Kouchner, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in Kosovo; William Walker, head of the OSCE mission in Kosovo; Wesley Clark, former NATO commander; Daan Everts, head of the OSCE office in Prishtina and other officials. The other defense teams have not disclosed the names of the witnesses they may call.
The Kosovo Specialist Court, on the other hand, takes a summer recess during August. Once all the evidence has been presented, the parties will have a few days to deliver their closing arguments. From the moment the trial concludes, the judges have at least three months to reach a verdict.
As a result, based on the required timelines, if the motion is rejected, the trial could conclude around the spring of 2026.
Until then, pretrial detention will continue.
Nearly five years in detention
Since the beginning of the proceedings, the Kosovo Specialist Court has continued to hold Thaçi, Veseli, Selimi and Krasniqi in detention, citing several reasons — primarily the risk of interference with witnesses and evidence.
Pre-trial detention has been widely criticized as an inappropriate measure for domestic courts in Kosovo. In the European Commission’s 2024 Kosovo Report and in Freedom House’s, domestic courts, among others, have been criticized for frequently determining pre-trial detention, in some cases deemed unnecessary. However, a similar situation has now become a matter of discussion for the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague.
For several months now, the Trial Chamber has determined that there is no flight risk for the four. Although flight risk cannot be completely ruled out, Thaçi, Veseli, Krasniqi and Selimi, according to the decision, have proven that they are willing to stand trial and do not intend to flee.
However, the main reason for the four’s continued detention over the past five years has been the potential impact on witnesses and evidence. According to the prosecution, as well as the judges’ bi-monthly decisions on the measure of detention, the political power and support that the four defendants have in Kosovo — along with their access to information and knowledge about witnesses and evidence — pose a risk to the safety of witnesses and the integrity of the process.
In addition to detention as an extreme measure, the defendants in this case are also subject to strict conditions in the detention center. For more than a year, their visits and phone calls have been limited. Thaçi, Veseli and Selimi are allowed only five visits per month, all of which are monitored at all times by security personnel and a translator, and cannot exceed 40 minutes in duration. All three have also had their video calls restricted to five per month.
These restrictions were imposed following monitoring by the Kosovo Specialist Court at the detention center, during which, according to the prosecutor, there were suspicions of attempts to pass confidential information to visitors.
As a result, Thaçi faces an additional indictment for obstruction of justice and obstruction of officials in the performance of their official duties. Bashkim Smakaj, former head of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency, along with Fadil Fazliu, Isni Kilaj and Hajredin Kuçi, are also included in the same indictment. Hysni Gucati and Nasim Haradinaj, leaders of the War Veterans’ Organization of the Kosovo Liberation Army, were convicted of obstruction of justice in 2022 in connection with the publication of several files in 2020. Three former KLA members — Haxhi Shala, Ismet Bahtijari and Sabit Januzi — pleaded guilty to similar offenses related to the administration of justice and were also convicted by the Kosovo Specialist Court.
However, the situation has now changed. With the conclusion of the evidence and the prosecution’s witnesses, this reasoning can no longer be considered valid, as the prosecution has finished presenting its case and there is no longer a risk of harming the process.
Nevertheless, the Kosovo Specialist Court rejected the requests for release from detention for Veseli, Selimi and Krasniqi. In early April, all three had requested that their clients be released under house arrest, at the very least.
For this reason, a few days after the lawyers’ request, the Kosovo Police (KP) also submitted a letter of guarantee, stating that it had the capacity to implement all requirements set by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers regarding house arrest. However, the request was rejected, and the KP guarantee was not taken into account. As a result, the four KLA leaders remain in detention.
In the documents published on the Kosovo Specialist Chambers website, the prosecution raised two concerns regarding the KP: the first relates to the KP’s capacity to decipher encrypted messages, and the second concerns the lack of access to confidential information related to the case of the KLA leaders. However, the details of these two objections by the Hague Prosecution to the KP’s guarantee have not been made public, as they are classified as confidential.
According to the European Court of Human Rights, detention is a measure of last resort, to be imposed only in exceptional circumstances. This measure must be justified by concrete reasons; otherwise, it is considered a violation of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees liberty and personal security. According to the court’s rulings, in addition to the flight risk and interference with witnesses, valid reasons may also include the risk of reoffending or committing other crimes — which, in this case, is considered highly unlikely.
Nevertheless, while the issue of detention will continue to be reviewed every two months by the judges of the Kosovo Specialist Chamber, the developments following the submission of the defense’s motion — and the judges’ decision on it — will be decisive for both the duration and the direction of the trial against Thaçi, Veseli, Selimi and Krasniqi.
Feature image: Stills from the Kosovo Specialist Court / K2.0
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