Lahi Brahimaj, Fatmir Limaj, Sylejman Selimi, Rrustem Mustafa, Latif Gashi, Shukri Buja and Sabit Geci were not defendants in the trial of Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi. Nevertheless, their names were included in the September 16 judgment of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague.
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When delivering its guilty verdict for war crimes against the four former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the trial panel of what is also known as the Specialist Court said that the seven other figures had been part of a “joint criminal enterprise.”
According to the court’s findings, Limaj, Geci, Mustafa and Gashi “were zealous implementers of the criminal purpose targeting opponents.”
What did the Specialist Court mean by “joint criminal enterprise”?
The trial panel justified the existence of a “common criminal purpose” by referring to several elements, including the killings of Albanians suspected of collaboration and of Serbs, political communiqués, special warfare, detention centers, as well as the tolerance, acceptance and encouragement of crimes against opponents.
The judges found that the four former KLA commanders had assigned themselves and others roles and functions that enabled them to “control the implementation of the common criminal purpose.”
Claims of the “retrospective criminalization” of the KLA leadership
Geoffrey Nice, a former prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), described as “unprecedented” the way Brahimaj, Limaj, Sylejman Selimi, Mustafa, Gashi, Buja and Geci were mentioned in the judgment against the four former KLA leaders.
In a response to Radio Free Europe (RFE), Nice explained that judgments may state that a person “acted as part of a joint criminal enterprise with unknown persons.”
Artan Qerkini, a lawyer licensed to practice before the Specialist Chambers, told RFE that the trial panel needed to include other “members” in this “common purpose” so that the four convicted men could be linked to crimes committed by other people.
Nevenka Tromp, an ICTY researcher who also closely followed the proceedings in the “Thaçi et al.” case, said that with this conclusion, the Specialist Court had described the entire KLA General Staff as participants in a “criminal enterprise.”
“It is a retrospective criminalization of the KLA’s central command structure as a whole, on a scale that the ICTY’s own judgments never established,” Tromp told RFE.
Can the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office investigate the seven individuals?
The summary of the September 16 judgment states that the seven KLA figures had agreed to the “common criminal purpose.” At the same time, the document clarifies that they have not been found guilty and that they continue to enjoy the presumption of innocence.
Artan Qerkini stressed that the inclusion of their names in the judgment cannot be considered a criminal complaint against them.
“The Specialist Prosecutor’s Office has had these names in its indictment since 2020, and for six years it has not brought charges against them,” he said.
Regarding the possibility that the seven individuals mentioned could face legal consequences, Qerkini said Sylejman Selimi’s case was “definitively closed,” as the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office had terminated its investigation into him in February 2025.
He added that the others had also previously faced judicial proceedings and that the criminal law principle of “no one may be tried twice for the same matter” applies in these cases.
The Specialist Prosecutor’s Office told RFE weeks ago that it does not comment on “the existence or details of any investigation.”
According to the institution, its mandate will continue “until the Council of the European Union notifies Kosovo’s institutions that the relevant investigations and proceedings have been completed.”
Shukri Buja, who was mentioned by the trial panel on September 16, does not believe that criminal proceedings can be initiated against him, as Specialist prosecutors closed in 2024 an investigation that had begun five years earlier.
“I am the first case in which they closed the investigation, and in a way they declared my war to have been just and unstained,” Buja told RFE.
He said that being described as a “member of a joint criminal enterprise” does not harm his reputation. According to Buja, the judgment that “unjustly” tarnished the four former KLA leaders was a different matter.
What legal proceedings have the seven figures faced?
Several of the seven individuals mentioned in the judgment have been questioned by the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office in The Hague.
Before that, they had various experiences with the justice system in cases related to war crimes.
Lahi Brahimaj and Fatmir Limaj were tried by the ICTY, but both were ultimately acquitted. Limaj was also acquitted in the “Kleçka” and “Bellanica” cases in Kosovo.
Sylejman Selimi, Rrustem Mustafa and Latif Gashi were convicted of war crimes by courts in Kosovo. Selimi was later acquitted during a retrial in one of the cases.
Sabit Geci was convicted in Kosovo of war crimes against civilians, while Shukri Buja has not faced any war crimes trial.
Former prosecutor Nice said the full judgment must be published before it can be understood whether the court will provide reasoning for including these seven names in the case against the four KLA figures. / RFE
