Live update

Following the completion of the testimony of the Defence witness Safet Gashi, the trial in the case of P. Shala adjourned for today and for the week, so the hearings scheduled for tomorrow and the day after (11 and 12 January) are cancelled. The next scheduled hearings are on 19 and 22 January but the Panel will confirm in due course whether they will be held or not. 

During today’s hearing, the Panel issued a number of oral orders, one of which was in relation to the Defence’s request to add an expert witness (psychologist) and her expert report to its list of witnesses and exhibits as well as to call her to testify in person on 19 January. The Panel today granted the request in part and ordered that the witness and the report (which the Panel found relevant for the purposes of sentencing) be added to the Defence lists of witnesses and evidence. The Panel however rejected the part of the Defence’s request for this testimony in court. 

The SPO resumes the cross-examination of the Defence’s 10th witness Safet Gashi this morning.

Please be informed that today’s lunch break in the P. Shala trial will last from 12:30 until 14:00 (or 13:15 – 14:45 in the delayed feed), after which the trial is expected to continue until 16:00 as usual.

This morning, the trial in the case of Pjetër  Shala resumed after the winter recess with the testimony of the 10th Defence witness. This is Safet Gashi, who is testifying without protective measures.

On 8 December 2023, Pre-Trial Judge Guillou rejected the application for provisional release of Sabit Januzi. The public redacted version of the decision is now available here. Earlier last year, Judge Guillou also denied the similar request by Bahtijari, that decision is here.

On 2 January 2024, the Trial Panel granted in part the request by the Veseli Defence and vacated the hearings in this case from 12 until 15 February. The Panel found that the Defence has shown a good cause for a limited adjustment of the schedule in order to ensure that the Defence’s ability to prepare for the cross-examination of the upcoming witnesses is unaffected by the recent sudden death of its co-counsel and the subsequent recruitment of his replacement. 

On 20 December 2023, the Trial Panel issued its decision on the complaints by Selimi (joined by Thaçi and Veseli) in relation to the Registrar’s implementation of the Panel’s decision from 1 December regarding the modified detention conditions. The Panel noted that such complaints should first be submitted directly to the Registrar and, if denied, the detainees can request judicial review of the Registrar’s decision within 30 days by the Panel. Therefore, the Panel denied the requests and the joinders finding them inconsistent with the procedure set out in the Practice Direction on Complaints and also premature. More details in the decision.

See here our previous posts about this matter: 23 November; 4 December.

As announced in our Calendar, the winter court recess at the KSC begins on Monday, 18 December 2023 and ends on 5 January 2024. During this period, no hearings are held and some non-essential services are reduced to a minimum. However, the court remains fully functional during this period and work continues across all sections of the KSC. Filings are possible during the recess and, unless otherwise ordered by the judges, judicial deadlines continue running.

Please be informed that the video of the status conference/further appearances held today, 15 December, in the Haxhi Shala case is now available in all three languages on our Youtube channel. 

During today’s status conference, Haxhi Shala requested to enter his plea and the Pre-Trial Judge granted the request. The accused pleaded not guilty to all three charges of the indictment against him.