Live update

Today's hearing has been adjourned following the Defence's and the Panel's examination of the expert witnesses called by the Victims' Counsel. The trial is adjourned for the week and the next hearing in this case is the status conference scheduled for 22 July.

On 16 July 2025, the Defence teams for Hashim Thaçi and Jakup Krasniqi informed the Trial Panel that they intend to present a Defence case. The Defence teams for Kadri Veseli and Rexhep Selimi notified  that they do not intend to present any Defence evidence.

This morning, Defence teams continued the cross-examination of expert witnesses called by the Victims’ Counsel. At present, the Defence team for Hashim Thaçi is conducting its cross-examination.

Following the delivery of the Panel’s Rule 130 decision, the Victims’ Counsel commenced the presentation of evidence this morning. The two witnesses called are expert witnesses, Karin Duhne-Prinsen and Dr Catherine Nicola Black, who are providing testimony on the psychiatric/psychological harm to victims in this case.

During today’s hearing, Trial Panel II rejected the joint Defence motion for dismissal  of charges pursuant to Rule 130 of the Rules. According to the Panel, the Defence motion challenged only one aspect of the SPO case—namely, whether an armed conflict existed in Kosovo before the end of May 1998 and following 20 June 1999. The Panel concluded that, according to the Rules, it lacks authority to dismiss such questions at this stage and added that the questions regarding the temporal scope of the armed conflict will be addressed in the final judgment.

The KSC will provide the full video and/or transcript of today’s hearing, including the Panel’s oral decision, as soon as possible.
 

On 14 July 2025, the President of the Specialist Chambers, Judge Ekaterina Trendafilova, dismissed a request by Haxhi Shala for conditional release, filed confidentially and ex-parte on 26 June 2025. The President found Shala is not yet eligible for consideration of sentence modification or alteration under the Law, as he has not served two-thirds of his sentence. The decision also stated that the application of Article 90 of the Kosovo Criminal Code before the Specialist Chambers, as submitted by Shala, cannot be sustained with further reasoning provided in the decision itself.

Please be informed that the video of the appeal judgment in the P. Shala case is now available on our Youtube channel. Click here to watch the video in English.

The public redacted version of the appeal judgment against Pjetër Shala, issued today, 14 July, is available in English and can now be accessed in our Public Court Records.

On 14 July 2025, the Court of Appeals Panel in the case of the Specialist Prosecutor v. Pjetër Shala, composed of Judges Michèle Picard, Kai Ambos and Nina Jørgensen, issued its judgment. The Appeals Panel affirmed Shala’s conviction for the war crimes of arbitrary detention (count 1), torture (count 3), and murder (count 4).  However, the Appeals Panel also granted in part three of the fourteen grounds raised by Shala in his appeal, dismissing the remaining grounds raised by Shala, and reducing his sentence from 18 to 13 years of imprisonment, with credit for time served. More details are available in the Press Release.

The streaming of the pronouncement of the appeal judgment in the case of Pjetër Shala, scheduled for 11:30 this morning, will be broadcast with a delay of 10 minutes. Click here to watch the live stream in English.