Thaci et al: Court of Appeals’ decision re. KSC jurisdiction

The Court of Appeals today issued its decision on the appeals, filed by the SPO and all four accused in the Thaci et al. case, against the Pre-Trial Judge’s decision from 22 July 2021 in relation to the KSC jurisdiction. In his decision, the Pre-Trial Judge rejected most of the Defence’s motions but did partially grant the motion by Veseli and consequently ordered the SPO to file an amended indictment excluding the JCE III liability for the special intent crimes. In today’s decision, the Court of Appeals Panel rejected all five appeals except Ground 1 of the SPO’s appeal, in relation to which the Panel found “that the applicability of JCE III as a mode of liability for special intent crimes before the Specialist Chambers does not qualify as a jurisdictional question” as per Rule 97 and that this question can instead be raised during trial.