The Appeals Panel that will review the appeals of former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leaders Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi has been composed of three international judges: Michèle Picard of France, Kai Ambos of Germany and Nina Jørgensen of Norway.
The panel is chaired by Picard. The three judges have previously served together on Appeals Panels at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) in The Hague. Official KSC records list Picard as presiding judge, with Ambos and Jørgensen as members of the Appeals Panel in the Thaçi et al. case.
The Appeals Panel will consider the appeals following the first-instance judgment delivered on September 16, 2026. The Trial Panel found all four defendants guilty of war crimes including unlawful or arbitrary arrest and detention, cruel treatment, torture and murder. Thaçi and Krasniqi were each sentenced to 25 years in prison, Veseli to 18 years and Selimi to 13 years.
Michèle Picard
French judge Michèle Picard has served as a judge at the Paris Court of Appeal since 2013. She previously served as a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) between 2008 and 2013.
Picard has also worked on human-rights issues in the Balkans, including as a member of the Human Rights Advisory Panel in Kosovo and as president of a Human Rights Chamber in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
She has also worked with the Council of Europe on projects concerning the alignment of domestic legislation with European human-rights standards.
Kai Ambos
German judge and legal scholar Kai Ambos is a professor of criminal law, criminal procedure, comparative law and international criminal law at the University of Göttingen.
He has worked as a defence lawyer and consultant before the ICTY and the International Criminal Court and has served as an acting judge in Germany.
Ambos has published extensively on international criminal law and criminal procedure and has previously served on Appeals Panels at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers. Official KSC records also show him serving on the Appeals Panel with Picard and Jørgensen.
Nina Jørgensen
Norwegian jurist Nina H. B. Jørgensen is a professor of public international law at the University of Southampton.
She previously worked at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, including as senior appeals counsel and senior legal adviser to the Office of the Prosecutor. She has also worked with the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia and the ICTY.
Jørgensen has advised the United Nations and non-governmental organizations on international criminal-law matters and has published extensively in the field.
Previous Appeals Panel experience
Picard, Ambos and Jørgensen have already served together in a number of KSC appellate proceedings. In the case of former KLA veterans Hysni Gucati and Nasim Haradinaj, the same three-judge panel issued the Appeals judgment, affirming several convictions while overturning one count.
The same panel also handled Pjetër Shala’s appeal in 2025, affirming his convictions for arbitrary detention, torture and murder while reducing his sentence from 18 to 13 years.
The appeals process in the Thaçi et al. case will determine whether the first-instance judgment and sentences are upheld, amended or otherwise affected on appeal. The first-instance judgment remains subject to appeal.
