James Rubin, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, confirmed that in a July interview this year, he stated that former President Hashim Thaçi was indicted at the very moment he was negotiating a peace agreement with Serbia.
Rubin argued that the Kosovo Specialist Chambers represent “an example of international justice gone out of control.” He described the indictment of Thaçi as baseless and politically driven:
“They created a case without foundation against the leader of Kosovo’s cause and indicted him at the moment he was creating a peace deal with Serbia. They put him in prison for more than four years, but even after three and a half years they cannot gather the evidence because they are making up the law.”
During his testimony, Rubin admitted he remembered making those statements, and parts of the interview were accepted as material evidence.
The prosecution challenged Rubin, noting that he had not read the indictment, the pre-trial brief, nor listened to witnesses, yet still claimed Thaçi’s prosecution was absurd. Prosecutor James Pace confronted him:
“You said on television that Mr. Thaçi is being prosecuted for completely absurd reasons. Is that correct?”
Rubin replied: “Yes, I believe I said that.”
Rubin acknowledged calling the Prosecution “a disgrace” in that interview, though he later described it as possibly an “ill-considered” expression used in a live television setting. Still, he stood by the broader point that the process had spiraled out of control.
He criticized the detention of Thaçi:
“It is shameful that Thaçi remains imprisoned while Kosovo itself created this Court. The law is very complex and, unfortunately, can be abused politically, by human rights groups, even by journalists. In the Balkans, this is justice gone out of control.”
Rubin also underlined the disproportionate responsibility of Serbian forces for wartime atrocities:
“The Serbian army committed 95% of the mass killings, and to equate that with what the Kosovo Albanians did is absurd and disgraceful.”
According to him, keeping Thaçi imprisoned while struggling to gather evidence illustrates the fundamental problem with the Specialist Chambers.
