Former US official Jason Steinbaum has stated that Kosovo should not have established the Special Court.
Commenting on the 81-year prison sentence in total for the four former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, Steinbaum told Euronews Albania that the Special Court did not properly review the evidence in this process.
According to him, since its establishment, the court has been perceived as an institution that focused on former KLA leaders, while it has not pursued in the same way those responsible for crimes committed during the war in Kosovo.
"We could have done it. This court should not have been established. It could have been done, it could have been handled by the Kosovo judicial system, and we should have shown Kosovo that we had faith in its justice system, that we had faith in its institutions so that it would go through with the process," Steinbaum said.
He added that the court could have also prosecuted Serbs suspected of crimes during the war in Kosovo.
"When the court was established, it was understood that it would only go after the KLA leaders and the court could have also prosecuted the Serbs who committed the vast majority of crimes during the war in Kosovo. So, by not doing this, people conclude that the court had a goal to punish the former KLA leaders and not those who committed crimes during the war," he stated.
Regarding the verdict given to the former KLA leaders, Steinbaum said he hopes the case will be reviewed on appeal and that the defense should raise the claim that the evidence was not properly reviewed.
"I hope that on appeal this will be an issue that the defense should raise. The court did not properly review the evidence and I hope that the judges on appeal will say that yes, this was a mistake and that there is a possibility that the conviction will be reversed," he said.
Steinbaum's statements come after the decision of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, while the case is now expected to continue in appeal proceedings.
