Dusan Janjic from the Belgrade-based Forum for Ethnic Relations said the first indictments of the specialist chambers cannot be expected before autumn and that they will involve people of influence in politics and security in Kosovo. Janjic said the approval of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence reaffirms the commitment of the international community to criminally prosecute war crimes in Kosovo.
The Assembly of Kosovo might hold during the following days a debate for amendment of the Law on the Special Chambers and the Office of the Specialized Prosecutor. The Commission for Legislation has decided to return the request of six MPs for an Assembly debate on the Special Court, to the Assembly Presidency.
The Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers, set up to try former Kosovo Liberation Army members for wartime and post-war crimes, could now be judicially operational in May.
Two months after its judges were appointed, the Kosovo Specialist Chambers adopted its Rules of Procedure and Evidence, it said in a statement on Tuesday - a move that could mean that the new court is judicially operational in fewer than two months.
On 14 December 2016 Dr Ekaterina Trendafilova was appointed the first President of the Specialist Chambers. A press release informs that after the independent Selection Panel submitted its recommendation, the Appointing Authority, Ms. Alexandra Papadopoulou, Head of the EULEX Mission in Kosovo, formally appointed the President.
In his first interview since appointed chief prosecutor of the new Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, David Schwendiman, told BIRN that suspected criminals are the target of his work, not the Kosovo Liberation Army. “I am not after organisations, I am not after ethnicities, I am looking at individual responsibility for what was done,” David Schwendiman said.