The Office of the Specialized Prosecutor has reduced the number of witnesses planned against the four KLA. This change is estimated to have a positive impact on the judicial process in The Hague.
Nearly 70 witnesses have testified in The Hague in the case against the four former leaders of the KLA.
The Specialized Prosecutor’s Office has announced that it has removed 23 witnesses from the list, while for some others, instead of being called to testify in court, the testimony given earlier will be read to them.
“ZPS no longer intends to rely on the testimony of the following ten witnesses: [REDACTED]. In addition, the SPS intends to submit in writing the testimonies of the following thirteen witnesses, instead of calling them to testify”, says the Prosecutor’s Office.
These changes in numbers are being evaluated with a positive impact on these processes.
“It is positive, because the Specialized Prosecutor has certainly described them as not relevant. Meanwhile, as far as the other 13 witnesses are concerned, it is emphasized that they will not be heard but their statements will be read as evidence, I consider that the Court should decide on this, since I will give my opinion on this, both the defense and myself the accused, whether it is necessary that these witnesses who have not been examined by either them or their defense, in order to give the opportunity to the accused and their defense to contradict their testimonies by taking into questions in an indirect way”, assesses lawyer Skender Musa.
As a result of the change in the number of witnesses, the duration of the process is reduced.
“We are working to complete this process faster than planned. What we can say as IKD, during our monitoring we noticed that the Prosecution will continue to work on reducing the number of witnesses it intends to call in this judicial process. However, any action of each party that is done with the aim of shortening the time limit for this judicial process to be carried out, should not affect and have the consequence that this process is without merit”, said Blendina Veliqi from the Institute of Kosovo for Justice.
Additional changes in the number of witnesses, ZPS has announced that they may occur in the coming months.