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Gregory Kehoe, the lawyer of the former president of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi, said that the Special Prosecution of The Hague is giving anti-Albanian arguments with political motives for keeping him in custody.
According to Thaçi’s defense, the SPO tends to present Kosovo as a weak state and the Kosovo Police as a criminal organization.
Thaçi’s lawyer, Gregory Kehoe, has submitted to the Special Court his response to the Specialized Prosecution in The Hague, where the latter considered that the Kosovo Police could not guarantee the necessary security for his release from detention in house arrest.
Kehoe compared the Special Court to the International Tribunal, as he said the same risks existed for defendants being tried at the International Tribunal.
“The reasons included in the case of Mr. Thaçi are the ‘danger’ that he ‘could’ escape, even though he surrendered voluntarily and has shown no intention of doing so; the ‘risk’ that he ‘might’ obstruct proceedings and interfere with witnesses and the ‘risk’ that he would commit similar crimes. These theoretical ‘dangers’ existed for every defendant at The Hague International Tribunal, but despite this, they were granted temporary release. This does not happen in the Specialized Chambers “, it is said in the answer of Thaçi’s lawyer.
Kehoe further mentioned other cases where the Hague Tribunal has granted freedom to many Serbs in Serbia.
“The Hague Tribunal also granted temporary release to many Serbs in Serbia, despite the massive human rights violations committed by the state security forces – violations on a much larger scale than those charged with the KLA or the accused in the present case. In those cases, the Hague Tribunal respected the guarantees given by Serbia, despite the atrocities committed by its government against Albanians. “Of course, these state guarantees and the conditions of release and return were routinely respected,” Kehoe said in a statement.
Further, lawyer Kehoe says that the SPO tries to present the Kosovo Police as a criminal organization, where he mentions the photo of former President Thaçi with the former director of the Kosovo Police, Rashit Qalaj, as an excuse that the SPO has used as evidence that Thaçi’s detention should be extended.
“The SPO does not provide any evidence of any misconduct. She relies on a photograph of Mr. Thaçi. Actually, this photo comes from the official Facebook profile of the then Minister of Justice in Kosovo, Abelard Tahiri, on September 29, 2018. It shows Mr. Thaçi holding a field meeting with the then Chief of Kosovo Police, Rashit Qalaj, then the director of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency, Shpend Maxhuni, and then with the Minister of Finance, Bedri Hamza, after the official visit to the Kosovo-Serbia border crossing in Brnjak and Lake Ujman “, it is said in the answer of Thaçi’s lawyer.
For Kehoe, these justifications by the Prosecution are politically motivated by the Russian state, unreliable media articles and political opponents of Thaçi.
“The reasoning of the SPO for the continuous detention of Mr. Thaçi are based on distortions and half-truths inspired by Russian propaganda, the political opponents of Mr. Thaçi and unreliable media articles. “The SPO, effectively, means that Thaçi, in his capacity as prime minister and president, led Kosovo as a criminal state”, it is said in Kehoe’s response, reports Klankosova.
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