The President of the Specialized Chambers of Kosovo Ekaterina Trendafilova says that the court will provide an impartial and fair trial to the accused, but also that it will prosecute those who try to in any way threaten the safety of victims and witnesses or exert any kind of pressure on judges, report Serbian media.
Albin Kurti, MP of Self-Determination, talks to Deutsche Welle and says that Kosovo should have the right to vote on a referendum on unification with Albania, and why he rejects the Brussels dialogue and the Community of Serb municipalities.
Deputy Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Dusan Kozarev met today Nils Melzer, the Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, reports RTK2.
During the meeting, Melzer was informed about the violations of the human rights of Serbs and other non-Albanians in Kosovo. Melzer is in the process of preparing a report for the UN Human Rights Council and is on a several-day visit to Serbia, reports RTK2.
The chairman of the Committee on Kosovo and Metohija Milovan Drecun told Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) that the establishment of the list of defense attorneys and the injured for the Specialized Council in Pristina will be completed for the next two to three months and the first indictments of the Special Prosecutor's Office should be expected afterwards.
The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network has published an e-book about the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, aiming to increase understanding about the newly-established court that will try ex-guerrillas for crimes during and after the war.
Discussing the role of the Kosovo Specialist court at the public presentation of the report “Public Perception of the Kosovo Specialist Court: Risks and Opportunities”, organized by NGOs PAX, Integra, and Center for Peace and Tolerance, President Thaçi criticized the one-sidedness of the “mono-ethnic” court and slammed the international community for falling short of fulfilling their part of the “bargain”.
Journalist of Radio-Television of Vojvodina Ljubica Gojgić assesses in a show "Dan uživo" of regional TV N1 that from the political assessment will depend which names will be found on the first indictments of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, N1 reports.
Risking to repeat mistakes made by previous international justice mechanisms, the Specialist Chambers need to change their strategy and address Kosovo society as a whole.
Since the end of the conflict in 1999, international and domestic hybrid courts have been the main fora for investigating the most serious war crimes and crimes against humanity in Kosovo and the wider region.
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.
In Velika Hoča, municipality of Rahovec/Orahovac yesterday was marked the suffering of Serbs of July 1998, when hundreds of Serbs and Roma were kidnapped in the municipality, Serbian media reported.
At the memorial service for the victims and abductees in the municipality of Rahovec/Orahovac, was said that no one still was responsible for the suffering of the Serbs, and that all the hopes for clarifying the crimes are directed at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, reported Serbian media.