Hashim Thaçi will remain in custody until the verdict is delivered in the joint trial case against him, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi, and Jakup Krasniqi.

The request for release by the former president of Kosovo has been rejected by the Trial Panel of the Specialist Chambers in The Hague, which ordered the continuation of detention. This marks the 27th decision extending the measure against Thaçi.

In the decision rendered on August 10, the judges concluded that at this stage they do not have sufficient information to assess that Thaçi could evade justice if released.

Nevertheless, the Trial Panel has assessed that there is still a sufficient risk that he could interfere with the proceedings of the Specialist Chambers or exert influence over witnesses.

The reasoning of the decision states that the Panel currently lacks sufficient data to conclude that Mr. Thaçi would avoid justice if released. However, according to the relevant standard, the Panel is convinced that there is a sufficient risk that he could obstruct the proceedings of the Specialist Chambers and commit other crimes against persons perceived as opponents of the KLA, including witnesses who have presented evidence in this case.

The pronouncement of the verdict for Thaçi, Veseli, Selimi, and Krasniqi is scheduled for September 16, 2026.

With the same decision, presiding judge Charles Smith instructed the parties not to submit any further submissions for the next review of Thaçi’s detention, which, according to the timelines, was due to be held on October 9, 2026.

The Trial Panel has assessed that such a review is no longer needed at this point, because the verdict announcement hearing is scheduled for September 16.

The Panel clarified that, pursuant to Article 41(10), the next review of Mr. Thaçi’s detention is in principle scheduled for Friday, October 9, 2026, unless the Trial Judgment is pronounced before that date.

The trial against Thaçi, Veseli, Selimi, and Krasniqi has been taking place in The Hague since 2023. The prosecution charges them with a series of criminal offenses it claims were committed during and after the war in Kosovo, while all four defendants have pleaded not guilty.

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Glauk Konjufca, acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, has spoken about the decision that the Specialist Chambers are expected to issue on September 16 regarding the former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

Asked how Kosovo’s institutions would respond if the defendants were found guilty, Konjufca urged the Hague court to be guided by justice rather than political considerations.

According to him, if the proceedings conclude with a just ruling, the outcome is clear, as the people of Kosovo witnessed that the KLA’s war was just. He argued that a criminal war would never have secured the support of the international community.

Konjufca stressed that criminal activity could not have been supported by the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Germany and France. He added that some of NATO’s best-known generals stood alongside figures from the Kosovo Liberation Army.

He went on to say that NATO officers took part in training KLA officers, with the aim of bringing the war to a successful conclusion. According to Konjufca, this happened because Kosovo’s army contributed to stopping Milošević’s genocide, and therein lies the meaning of the KLA’s war.

He stated that all those accused in The Hague helped achieve this goal. Konjufca said this is what a decision based on justice should look like, while warning that the people would feel deeply outraged if the outcome were political rather than just.

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In a statement made public on Monday, the institution emphasized that the regulation for such cases was approved by the judges in line with international human rights standards, including Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.

According to the statement, “So far, the judges of the Specialist Chambers have authorized 14 such visits to Kosovo for detainees, while their organization and management have been handled by the court itself.”

According to the clarification, these visits are approved in special humanitarian circumstances, such as cases when a relative is seriously ill or when the detainee must attend funeral ceremonies and stay with family following the loss of a relative.

The Specialist Chambers also announced that, in the case of former president Hashim Thaçi, the judges have authorized four such visits to Kosovo on humanitarian grounds.

These clarifications, according to the institution, were provided in relation to the procedures and legal basis that make temporary visits by detainees to Kosovo possible.

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The Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague had set this date as the deadline for issuing the first-instance decision, but it remains unclear whether the trial panel will meet it or seek additional time to finalize the verdict.

According to the Specialist Chambers, the delay so far has been justified by the large volume of the case file and its complexity, stressing that the material requires considerable time for analysis and review by the judges.

However, the Specialist Chambers themselves do not rule out the possibility that this deadline could be postponed again if the judges consider it necessary. Meanwhile, Thaçi and the others continue to remain in detention more than four months after the conclusion of the trial proceedings.

According to legal experts, from the outset this process has not been fair and has been significantly drawn out, resulting in violations of the rights of the accused. They also believe there is a possibility that the decision could be delayed again.

“It is lawful, but as far as whether it is logical for us who live in Kosovo, it is illogical because it is a delay and in all likelihood it will happen. There are numerous filings, even though the judges have continuously reviewed them during the court proceedings, have read them and have heard the witnesses, the law still obliges them to analyze all the documents one by one and not all together. What matters in the end is for the decision to come out positive and for them to be released, while as for delays, they have waited several years, so let them wait a few more months, because any longer would be too much,” Skender Musa, a lawyer, told RTK.

Lawyer Arbër Jashari also says that the continuation of detention while waiting for the verdict constitutes a violation of their rights.

“The moment the prosecution’s witnesses were heard, there was no longer any reason for those people to remain there, I mean legal reason. The very fact that all the evidence has been administered and the process has ended and now we are only waiting for the verdict shows that almost even those minimal reasons on which the court could justify that these suspects might obstruct the process have ceased,” he said.

Thaçi and the others have been held in detention in The Hague since November 2020. In February, during their closing statements, they declared that they are innocent and that their release would be the fairest decision.

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