Judges reject call for near ban on Hague prison visits for 3 former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters

By ZENEL ZHINIPOTOKU and LLAZAR SEMINI
Associated Press

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — International judges have rejected a demand by prosecutors for a nearly complete ban on prison visits for three former Kosovo Liberation Army leaders on trial at The Hague for war crimes. Kosovo ex-President Hashim Thaci, former parliamentary Speaker Kadri Veseli and ex-lawmaker Rexhep Selimi face charges including murder, torture and persecution during and after the 1998-1999 war with Serbia. The three defendants have been in custody since November 2020. Prosecutors called on the judges to limit their prison visits to only their lawyers or close relatives. Prosecutors have said that the three were attempting to tamper with witnesses and leak confidential testimony. But a panel of judges said Monday that the request from prosecutors wasn’t “proportional.”