The Special Court shocks with the numbers and reveals the deadline/ This is how many years the former leaders of the KLA will stay in prison for disclosing the evidence

Today, the former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army appeared before the court for the decision.

The Office of the Specialized Prosecutor and the defense teams have requested that the time limit for the collection of material evidence and the questioning of witnesses be reduced as the time for the start of the trial approaches.

The trial against the former president of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi, the former leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, Kadri Veseli, the former member of the General Staff of the KLA, Rexhep Selimi and the former spokesperson of the KLA, Jakup Krasniqi, is set for April 3. They are accused by the Specialized Chambers in The Hague of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The accused are following the status conference via video link.

According to the judge, if they refer to the calculations presented by the Office of the Specialized Prosecutor, then it seems that it will take 6.5 years for the ZPS to present the evidence and interrogate the witnesses, and this, according to the judge, "is excessive".

Only for the first 12 witnesses, if the SPS acts according to the calculations presented, the judge said that it will take until January of last year to complete the interrogations.

The judge said that the ZPS presented 312 witnesses, which is 46 witnesses per year and it takes 6.5 years for them to complete the proceedings.

The Special Prosecutor's Office said it is working on reviewing the timeline, including removing some witnesses.

The defense of the former leaders of the KLA also said that it is being coordinated that if the prosecution witnesses refer to only one of the accused, the other defense teams will not question him.

Thaçi's defense team also said that the time estimates presented for defense witnesses may be reduced, as the time estimates presented are maximum estimates.