Defense attorney Ms. Tavakoli stated that Hashim Thaçi, in his capacity as Prime Minister of the Provisional Government, did not possess real governing authority.
“He could not sign any meaningful commitments on behalf of Kosovars in his role as Prime Minister,” she said, recalling the testimony of former British diplomat John Stewart Duncan, who stated that Thaçi was unable to sign the KLA demilitarization agreement as Prime Minister of the Provisional Government.
“Prime Minister was merely a title; it was not a mechanism through which the Joint Criminal Enterprise [a term used by the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office in the indictment to refer to the accused and certain former KLA commanders] could be implemented,” she added.
Tavakoli further noted that in the early days of UNMIK’s establishment, Thaçi initially competed with the international administration for authority, but subsequently accepted UNMIK’s mandate and cooperated with it.
She questioned how Thaçi could have intended to take control of Kosovo when he agreed to the demilitarization of the KLA, accepted cooperation with UNMIK, and acknowledged his electoral defeat in the post-war period until 2007.
