TIRANA – Kosovo President Hashim Thaci returned to Kosovo through the Morina checkpoint where he was greeted with flags of Kosovo, Albania and the United States by dozens of supporters on Friday after being interviewed for four days by the war crimes prosecutors of the Specialist Chambers in The Hague.
President Thaci said in an announcement on FB on Friday that he will give an address, where he will talk about the four days of interviewing by prosecutors in The Hague on Saturday.
Thaci went to The Hague on Monday to meet war crimes prosecutors as he was indicted last month for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during Kosovo’s 1998-99 war against Serbian rule. He said that he stood for “truth, reconciliation and peace” before entering the Specialist Chambers set up to handle cases of war crimes.
On Thursday, after the end of the fourth interview, Thaci told reporters in front of the Specialized Prosecution building in The Hague that he had given his testimony and that he expected the prosecutor and the judge to decide professionally on his testimony.
Journalists inquired whether the president had been asked about the alleged crimes in the so-called ‘Yellow House’ and post-war crimes, but Thaci said he had not been asked about these issues by the prosecutor.
“Tonight I have no right to speak about any information about my testimony for four days now, but regarding your question that you submitted, to date I have not been asked about such claims in any case,” he said, reiterating that such claims had not been submitted to his address for this period.
In a press release, the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office claims that “Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veseli and other suspects are criminally responsible for approximately 100 illegal killings. The crimes presented in the indictment include hundreds of identified Albanian, Serb and Roma victims as well as Kosovo and political opponents.”
This is the first time the public knows that a person has been invited for an interview as an indictment has already been filed against this person. However, it is not known in what capacity Thaci was invited to this interview. The content of the indictment is confidential until the judge confirms them. The pre-trial judge has a maximum of six months, from April, to confirm or dismiss the indictments.
On June 29, Thaci stated that if the indictment of the Specialized Prosecutor against him was confirmed, then he would immediately resign from the position of president. (Compiled from a dispatch of evropaelire.org
