As of July 5, the Specialist Chambers and the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office have been fully judicially operational and at any moment now we can expect to read about potential indictments and trial dates. There was an initial false-start, in which the Rules of Procedure and Evidence were found to be inconsistent with the Constitution, but these rules have now been revised and found to be compliant.

There are not so many more things that one can write about the legal framework of the Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office before the trials begin and the indictments are issued. But before the trials begin and the focus is shifted, let’s focus on one last potential controversy in relation to the law and Rules of Procedure and Evidence.

Throughout its formation, the protection of witnesses and a focus on the victims has been one of the major points of the Specialist Chambers. It was a point stressed again by Ekaterina Trandafilova, president of the Specialist Chambers, last week in an interview for BIRN, in which she repeatedly emphasized that the court would protect its witnesses properly — a failing in previous attempts to prosecute Kosovo Liberation Army fighters. They have effective tools and procedures in place to do this, she said, and they will succeed in protecting witnesses.

See at: http://kosovotwopointzero.com/en/specialist-chambers-learn-past-experiences-witness-testimonies/