Live update

On 5 December 2025, the Court of Appeals Panel denied Fadil Fazliu’s appeal against the Pre-Trial Judge’s fifth decision ordering his continued detention, issued on 3 October 2025.
In the meantime, as announced yesterday, the Single Trial Judge has issued the sixth decision extending Fazliu’s detention.

On 4 December 2025, the Single Trial Judge scheduled the start of the trial in the case against Hashim Thaçi, Bashkim Smakaj, Isni Kilaj, Fadil Fazliu and Hajredin Kuçi for Tuesday, 24 February 2026. According to the order, the SPO’s case-in-chief, during which three witnesses are expected to be called, should run in a single block until 6 March 2026.
The order, available here, also sets a few procedural deadlines for submissions by the Parties.

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

In the detention review decision of 3 December 2025, the Single Trial Judge ordered the continued detention of Hashim Thaçi, Bashkim Smakaj and Fadil Fazliu. Judge Gosnell found that a real risk remains that the accused, if released, may obstruct the progress of the proceedings and commit further offences.
This is the sixth such decision in this case; all detention review decisions are available here. 

Another KSC weekly press briefing will take place on Thursday, 4 December, 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.

In line with the Panel’s order of 21 November, the Defence teams of Hashim Thaçi and Jakup Krasniqi notified the Trial Panel of the formal closure of their cases. The notifications are available here.

Please be reminded about the trial preparation conferences in the case against Thaçi, Smakaj, Kilaj, Fazliu and Kuçi this morning at 09:30. As in the other cases, the streaming of this hearing will be broadcast with a delay of 45 minutes. Click here to watch the live stream in English. 

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

The public redacted version of the latest request for protection of legality submitted by Pjetër Shala before the Supreme Court was filed on 25 November 2025. The Request, which relates to the Appeal Judgment issued in July, is available in the KSC Public Court Records.
 
As indicated in our earlier post in October, any responses to this referral by the SPO and the Victims’ Counsel are due by 3 December 2025.

In an order issued on 21 November 2025, the Trial Panel set out a series of deadlines and directions concerning the conclusion of the Defence case and the remaining stages of the proceedings.

Among other matters, the Panel instructed the Thaçi and Krasniqi Defence teams to formally close their cases by 2 December 2025, or on the first working day following the issuance of the Panel’s last decision on the outstanding requests for admission of evidence, whichever occurs earlier.

With regard to the final trial briefs and the statement on the impact of the alleged crimes on participating victims, the Panel partially granted the Parties’ request for an extension and ordered that these filings be submitted by 19 January 2026, to be followed by closing statements, scheduled to take place from 9 to 13 February 2026.

The Panel deferred its decision on the modalities of potential reparations proceedings to a later stage. It also rejected the Defence request for a separate sentencing procedure, confirming that any sentencing, if applicable, will be addressed together with the Trial Judgment, and directing the Parties to include any sentencing-related submissions in their final trial briefs.