The Special Court in The Hague has announced that it has approved the request of former KLA leader Hashim Thaci, who is indicted for war crimes and obstructing the court’s proceedings, for a short visit to his ailing father in Kosovo.

The court determined that there were “compelling humanitarian reasons” for the visit.

Previously, Thaci’s four urgent requests to visit his father in January and February were denied by the judges, who stated there were not enough humanitarian grounds as Thaci’s father was not in critical health.

The judges cited “the presence of a persistent climate of witness intimidation and interference in the judicial process against former KLA members in Kosovo” as a reason for rejecting these requests, along with the fact that Thaci was accused of obstructing court operations by influencing witnesses in his war crimes trial.

The Hague court permitted Thaci to see his ill parents in Kosovo twice in 2023. He visited his mother in May and his father in September of that year.

The trial of Thaci and his co-defendants for alleged war crimes in Kosovo and Albania during 1998-99 has been ongoing at the Hague Tribunal for nearly two years.

Kadri Veselji, Rexhep Selimi, and Jakup Krasniqi also face accusations of committing atrocities against Albanians deemed “collaborators,” as well as Serbs and Roma, in over 40 KLA detentions.

In a separate case, Thaci was indicted at the end of last year for obstructing trial proceedings by disclosing the identities of confidential witnesses and improperly influencing them.

The indictment claims that Thaci revealed the identities of six protected witnesses from the main trial to his associates who visited him in the Hague detention center, and through these visitors, guided the witnesses on how to testify. Alongside Thaci, the accused include Isni Kiljaj, Baškim Smakaj, Fadilj Fazliju, and Hajredin Kući.

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