On 15 September 2025, the Defence in the trial of Mr. Hashim Thaçi and co-accused will start presenting their cases before the Kosovo Specialist Chambers with the Defence of Mr. Thaci calling their first witness. The hearing is expected to be mostly in public session. It will begin at 9:00 and can be followed online in the three languages of the court, Albanian, Serbian and English, via the streaming function on the KSC website, with a 45-minute delay.
Due to the high interest in attending the hearing, pre-registration is required to attend the hearing from the public gallery at the premises in The Hague. To pre-register, please send an email to [email protected]. Please note that your seat is confirmed only once you receive a confirmation email. Confirmation emails will be sent latest on 11 September 2025. Interested media are requested to indicate whether they will also need a seat in the media centre.
For persons attending the hearing in the public gallery, please kindly be aware of the Rules of Conduct at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers.
Case History
The initial indictment against the four accused was confirmed on 26 October 2020, and amended on 3 September 2021, 29 April 2022, and 30 September 2022. A lesser redacted version of the indictment was filed on 27 February 2023. This is currently the operative indictment in this case.
Each of the accused is charged on the basis of individual criminal responsibility with six counts of crimes against humanity: persecution, imprisonment, other Inhumane acts, torture, murder, and enforced disappearance of persons. Each of the accused is also charged with four counts of war crimes: illegal and arbitrary arrest and detention, cruel treatment, torture, and murder.
The indictment states that the crimes charged were committed from at least March 1998 through September 1999 and took place in several locations across Kosovo as well as in Kukës and Cahan, in Northern Albania. They were allegedly committed by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) against hundreds of civilians and persons not taking part in hostilities. The indictment alleges that Messrs Thaçi, Veseli, Selimi and Krasniqi are individually criminally responsible, pursuant to various forms of criminal responsibility, for crimes which were committed in the context of a non-international armed conflict in Kosovo and were part of a widespread and systematic attack against persons suspected of being opposed to the KLA.
Following their arrest by the Specialist Prosecutor, Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi were transferred to the Detention Facilities of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on 4 and 5 November 2020.
The trial started on 3 April 2023 with the Opening Statement of the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office (SPO). The SPO closed their case on 15 April 2025. Victims’ Counsel, representing the 155 participating victims, presented their case in July 2025. So far 127 witnesses have testified in court in this case, 125 called by the Prosecution and two called by Victims’ Counsel. An additional 137 witness statements have been admitted in written form only.
In a recent order, the Trial Panel set the target date for the closing of the defence case for Friday, 14 November or one week after the completion of the last witness testimony, whichever one is earlier. The Panel emphasized that the date is a mere indication of the Panel’s estimate of the length of the defence case and can be brought forward or be extended as necessary.
The Panel further informed the Parties and participants that they should be prepared to file their final trial briefs, and statement on the impact of the alleged crimes on victims participating in the proceedings, before Monday, 22 December 2025.
The date and time for all scheduled public hearings can be found on the court calendar on the website of the KSC. In addition, recordings of public hearings are made available on the KSC YouTube channel.