Special Court Ombudsperson in The Hague, Pietro Spera: Not all detainees have agreed to meet with me

Pietro Spera, the Ombudsperson of the Special Court in The Hague, announced that he has monitored detention conditions to ensure that international standards are being applied there.

According to him, during inspections he offers detainees the opportunity for private and confidential meetings. “As part of the inspections, I offer meetings to detainees, in a private and confidential manner. Some of them have met with me, some have not.”

Spera also wrote that in the past week he carried out his 11th inspection and that he is satisfied that the detention conditions meet the highest standards.

Earlier, Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi, who are facing war crimes charges in The Hague, sent a letter to Ombudsperson Pietro Spera.

In this letter, the former KLA leaders emphasize that the Specialist Chambers were established to provide an adequate response to the allegations in Dick Marty’s Report, while complaining that the proceedings against them are being accompanied by irregularities.

The former senior state and KLA officials mentioned “prolonged delays in the process, delayed materials, excessive redactions,” assessing that these slow down the judicial process and endanger the principle of equality of arms in the proceedings.