Live update

As previously reported, on 16 July, Trial Panel II rejected the joint Defence motion seeking dismissal of charges pursuant to Rule 130 of the Rules. At the status conference on 22 July, the Panel issued an oral order directing the Defence teams to make their motion public. A public redacted version of the motion is now available in our Public Court Records. The SPO response to the Rule 130 motion had already been reclassified as public pursuant to the same order and is also available.
 
These and other relevant filings, together with further information on this trial, can be found on the Thaçi et al. case page.

Here is the transcript of today's KSC Weekly Press Briefing.

Another KSC weekly press briefing will take place on Thursday, 21 August, at 14:30. During this briefing, the KSC Spokespersons will provide a short update on the latest developments in the judicial proceedings before the KSC, as well as on other public activities of the Court. Journalists will have the opportunity to ask questions. Pre-registration is required to attend each briefing. To pre-register, please send an email with name and affiliation to [email protected]. Deadline for pre-registration is every Thursday at 12:00. The Zoom details will be shared following pre-registration. Recordings of the update provided during the Weekly Press Briefings will be made available on the KSC YouTube Channel.

As mentioned during today’s Defence Preparation Conference, the court schedule for the Thaçi et al. trial has been updated and is now available until the end of 2025. The full schedule can be seen in our online Court Calendar.
Further on scheduling matters, Trial Panel II confirmed today that the Defence case will commence on 15 September 2025 and announced that there will be no hearing on 25 September, as previously scheduled.
 

The Pre-Trial Judge in the case against Thaçi et al. for charges related to the administration of justice issued her decision regarding the SPO’s request to modify Hashim Thaçi’s detention conditions. Judge Masselot partially granted the request, adopting certain restrictions to Thaçi’s non-privileged visits by specific individuals mentioned in the decision, whose public redacted version was filed on 18 August 2025. The remainder of the SPO motion was rejected. The new restrictions will be reviewed by the Judge for necessity every three months.

Following the Trial Panel’s rejection of their provisional release requests we informed earlier, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi filed appeals with the Court of Appeals Panel. On 13 August 2025, the Court of Appeals Panel dismissed all three appeals. The decisions are available via this link. 

On 8 August 2025, the Supreme Court Panel rejected Pjetër Shala’s motion for an extension of time and word limit for his request for protection of legality. As set out in the decision, the Panel found that the statutory deadline in the KSC Law for filing such a request cannot be varied and that Shala had not demonstrated good cause or exceptional circumstances to justify an increase in the word limit. 
 
Under the Law, the deadline for filing a request for protection of legality is within three months of the final judgment, which in this case was rendered on 14 July 2025.
 

Following the Trial Panel’s latest scheduling decision, the updated court schedule for the Thaçi et al. trial—covering August to October 2025—is now available on our online calendar. At this moment, no hearings, apart from the Defence Preparation Conference, are scheduled in August, while trial sessions are planned for the second half of September, as well as 1 and 2 October.

As announced in our Calendar, the summer court recess at the KSC begins on Monday, 28 July and ends on 15 August 2025. During this period, no hearings are held and some non-essential services are reduced to a minimum. However, the court remains fully functional during this period and work continues across all sections of the KSC. Filings are possible during the recess and, unless otherwise ordered by the judges, judicial deadlines continue running.

On 25 July 2025, Trial Panel II issued an order setting 15 September 2025 as the intended start date for the Defence case. The date will be confirmed at the Defence Preparation Conference scheduled for 19 August 2025.

Additionally, the Panel issued further directions on matters such as revised exhibit lists and disclosure deadlines. These details are set out in the full decision available here.