Private Hearing of First Witness in Thaci Trial Causes Concern

The first witness of the Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor's Office in the trial of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and his three co-defendants was heard this week in the Hague in closed sessions - after the prosecution requested protection of the identity of the witness.

However, the decision has caused concern about the court's transparency and about the right of the public to draw their own conclusions. 

Amer Alija, legal analyst at the Humanitarian Law Centre Kosovo, which monitors the trials at the Specialist Chambers, told BIRN: "The court proceedings before the KSC have drawn a lot of interest from the Kosovar public and beyond; the court must find a solution between transparency/publicity and identity protection."

In the court's weekly press briefing on Thursday, spokesperson Michael Doyle said that "all trials before the KSC are public, however sometimes judges will decide to conduct part of the trial hearing in a so-called private session, or to redact certain information, to protect the identity and security of witnesses or victims". Such decisions are made on a case-by-case-basis. 

"The judges make sure to balance the need to protect witnesses with the rights of the accused," Doyle added, noting that the witness was cross-examined by lawyers of the defendants despite the hearing being private.

Alija, however, told BIRN that several protective measures are already in place to protect the identity of the witnesses and still maintain parts of the testimony in public.

"What the trial panel can do is not to redact for the public those parts of the declarations that are not related to the identity," Alija said, adding that the protective measures usually used in such procedures include "covering personal data,...