Lahi Brahimaj, Fatmir Limaj, Sylejman Selimi, Rrustem Mustafa, Latif Gashi, Shukri Buja and Sabit Geci were not defendants, but their names were mentioned in the September 16 judgment of the Specialized Chambers of Kosovo in The Hague against Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Vesel, Rexhep Selim and Jakup Krasniqi. During the announcement of the guilty verdict for war crimes against the four former superiors of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the judicial body of what is known even as the Special Court found that the other seven figures were members of the "joint criminal enterprise". They were even told that Limaj, Geci, Mustafa and Gashi "were diligent implementers of the criminal intent that targeted the opponents." How did the Special Court describe the "joint criminal enterprise"? The jury supported the existence of the "joint criminal intent" on factors such as: the murders of Albanians suspected as collaborators and Serbs, political communiques, special war, detention centers and tolerance, acceptance and encouragement of crimes against opponents. According to the judges, the four former leaders of the KLA had assigned themselves and others roles and positions, through which they "controlled the implementation of the common criminal goal." "Retrospective criminalization" of the leadership of the KLA The former prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for ex-Yugoslavia (TPNJ), Geoffrey Nice, calls "unprecedented" the way Brahimaj, Limaj, Sylejman Selimi, Mustafa, Gashi, Buja and Geci were named in the judgment against the KLA foursome. In an answer to Radio Free Europe (REL), he shows that in such judgments it can be said that someone has "acted within a joint criminal enterprise with persons of unknown". Meanwhile, the lawyer licensed in the Specialized Chambers, Artan Qerkini, says for REL that the jury needed other "members" as part of this "common goal", to connect the four convicts with the crimes committed by other people. With this finding, according to Nevenka Trompit, TPNJ researcher who has closely followed the process in the "Thaçi and others" case, the Special Court described the entire General Staff of the KLA as a participant in the "enterprise criminal". "It is a retrospective criminalization of the central command structure of the KLA as a whole, to a degree that the judgments of the TPNJ itself never proved", says Tromp for REL. Can the Prosecution begin investigations against the seven? In a summary of the judgment of September 16, it is said that the seven figures of the KLA agreed "on the common criminal intent", but it is emphasized that they have not been found guilty and that they enjoy the presumption of innocence. Even the lawyer Qerkini asserts that the fact that they are mentioned in the judgment does not constitute a criminal charge against them. "The Office of the Specialized Prosecutor has had these names in its indictment since 2020, and for six years it has not filed an indictment against them", he says. The question of whether the seven mentioned may face legal consequences, Qerkini says that he "definitely closes" the case of Sylejman Selim, because Prosecutor's Office Specialized stopped the investigations against him in February 2025. According to him, the other names have also gone through court proceedings, and here he says that the well-known principle of criminal law "no trial for the same case twice" applies. A week ago, the Special Prosecutor's Office told REL that they refuse to comment on "the existence or details of any investigation". According to them, the mandate of this prosecution continues "until the Union Council European Union to notify the institutions of Kosovo that the investigations and relevant procedures have been completed". Shukri Buja, mentioned by the court on September 16, does not believe that he can be prosecuted, since the Special prosecutors in 2024 closed the investigations that they had started against him five years earlier. "I am the first case that they closed the investigations, and in a way they declared my fight fair and untainted", says Buja for REL. He says that he is not tainted even by the designation "member of the joint criminal enterprise", unlike the judgment which, according to him, "unjustly" tarnished the four former heads of the KLA. What processes did the seven figures of the KLA go through? Some of the seven figures mentioned in the judgment have been questioned by the Specialized Prosecutor's Office in The Hague. Earlier, they had different experiences with justice in matters related to the crimes of war. Lahi Brahimaj and Fatmir Limaj was tried by the ICTY, but both were eventually found not guilty. Limaj was also found not guilty in the "Kleçka" and "Bellanica" cases in Kosovo. Sylejman Selimi, Rrustem Mustafa and Latif Gashi were convicted by the courts in Kosovo for war crimes, while Selimi was later found not guilty in the retrial of one of the cases. Sabit Geci was convicted in Kosovo for crimes war against civilians, while Buja has not gone through any process court for war crimes. According to the former prosecutor Nice, the full judgment must be waited to see if there will be a justification why the seven names were mentioned in the case against the KLA four.

Source: prizrenpost