The former Dutch ambassador to Kosovo, Robert Bosch, considers the Prosecution's request for a 45-year prison sentence for the former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army absurd.
He says that there is no evidence to support the SPS's claims of war crimes against Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selim and Jakup Krasniqi. In an interview for KosovaPress from The Hague, Bosch emphasizes that he expects the trial panel to declare them not guilty and release them due to lack of evidence.
On Monday, the final submissions in the largest trial in the Special Court began.
The Chief Specialized Prosecutor, Kimberly West, has requested a sentence of 45 years in prison for Thaçi and the others.
Meanwhile, the defense teams have requested that the same be declared innocent on all counts of the indictment, saying that there is no evidence to support the SPS's claims.
Former Dutch ambassador Robert Bosch says it is not true that the Liberation Army was criminal, adding that if it were otherwise, NATO would not cooperate.
"45 years in prison based on what? I mean, I'm really sorry. I can't understand it at all because, as you know, this trial has been going on for quite some time and there have been many witnesses, and many of them have really undermined what the prosecution was saying. What I don't understand about the prosecution is that they seem to be just enemies of those four people. It seems like they're just there to convict them at any cost. Normally they would say: 'Okay, we have a trial, they're accused'. I'm not a lawyer, but they're accused, then a lot of witnesses come and you think: 'Oh, maybe it's not as bad as we thought'. That would be normal. And now, in fact, they've made it even worse. They still say that the KLA was a criminal organization, which is not true and has been proven not to be true. It was not a criminal organization because I myself was personally involved in 1999 with the Dutch government and NATO. And of course, we knew that we were using the KLA "like NATO troops on the ground. And it, of course, was not a criminal organization, otherwise we would not cooperate with them. They worked for us. So what this prosecutor is saying de facto is that NATO was cooperating with a criminal organization, which is certainly not true. And again, Clark and all the other witnesses have confirmed that this was not the case," Bosch declares.
The trial panel, which is led by Judge Charles Smith, according to the Dutch diplomat, must be neutral in its decision towards the defendants.
"Judges should be neutral. They are not the same as the prosecution. So I hope and I have to believe that judges are truly objective. I think if they are objective, they will say that the prosecution has a very weak case. In my opinion, they will dismiss the whole case by saying: 'Listen, it is a very weak case' and then either acquit them for lack of strong evidence, or say that they have nothing to do with this. I would be surprised and I think the court would compromise itself... I want to say to the judges, of course I should not put pressure on them, but I believe that they are honest people. In that case, based on what I have seen, they cannot convict these people. They cannot. It would be very strange if they went after the prosecution," he adds.
Leaders from Kosovo and the region have reacted to the request of the Public Prosecutor's Office for 45-year sentences for the former KLA leaders.
Bosch also says this is an absurd request, as it is considered life imprisonment.
A protest will be held in Pristina on the 18th anniversary of Kosovo's declaration of independence, with the motto "Justice, Not Politics".
Former ambassador Robert Bosch says this is necessary, as Kosovo is being insulted by claims that the Kosovo Liberation Army is criminal.
"Protests are perfect as long as they are not violent. I don't like violent protests like the one you had in Tirana last week, but protests are okay. In this case there is room for protest, because calling the KLA a criminal organization is an insult to your country. It is an insult. Because if you look now in Serbia, which was the main responsible for the whole problem in the first place, a lot of people who were involved are still there. I think the head of their army is one of the people who was involved in the killings in Kosovo. They have a lot of people sitting there and laughing. Dacic and Vucic were also involved in a similar way to Thaci – they were not killing people by hand, but they were ministers of propaganda. They were really helping Milosevic. So how is it possible that they are sitting there comfortably? Why aren't they in prison for 45 years? Because they have done more or less similar things to what Thaci is alleged to have done. Thaci was promoting the KLA as a liberation movement, while "These were promoting Milosevic's policies for a Greater Serbia at the expense of Albanians in Kosovo and Bosniaks in Bosnia. But they are there," Bosch emphasizes.
