81 Years of Prison for Former KLA Leaders — Judge Charles Smith Had Been Mentioned in Simmons’ Accusations of EULEX Scandals and “Political Convictions”

Judge Charles L. Smith III, who headed the trial panel that on September 16 delivered the verdict against Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi, is a name well known to public opinion in Kosovo for years.

The trial panel headed by Smith sentenced Thaçi to 25 years in prison, Veseli to 18 years, Selimi to 13 years and Krasniqi to 25 years – a total of 81 years of imprisonment.

The verdict is of the first instance and can be appealed.

But long before he became head of this trial panel at the Specialist Chambers, Smith had served in Kosovo as an international judge of EULEX.

From 2010 to 2013, he was a EULEX judge. During this period he also served at the Supreme Court of Kosovo and held leadership posts in the structure of the EU mission’s judges.

His name would later be mentioned by Malcolm Simmons, former EULEX judge and former head of the Assembly of Judges of this mission, for political interference in judicial cases in 2021.

One of the cases for which Simmons had raised accusations was the one known as “Kleçka”, in which Fatmir Limaj was among the accused.

In his statement, Simmons claimed that the political importance that EULEX attached to this case had been made clear to him also through an email of January 29, 2013 from Charles Smith, at the time head of the EULEX Assembly of Judges.

According to the document published in Simmons’ statement, Smith had asked that the case be scheduled as soon as possible, citing “a number of reasons, most of them political.”

“The political importance of the ‘Kleçka’ case for the mission was underlined to me in an email I received on January 29, 2013 from the then head of the EULEX Assembly of Judges, Charles Smith,” Simmons said, adding that after being assigned to the trial panel in 2013 he had received instructions. “Charles Smith then informed me that the mission, in his words, depended on the outcome of this case. He said that the mission, again in his words, expected there to be convictions. He further suggested that my job could be put at risk if the defendants were not convicted,” he said in a video published in 2021.

Simmons had said he had also reported the concerns about this communication to British representatives in Kosovo.

According to him, he had sent an email on July 11, 2013 to the Embassy of the United Kingdom and later met with the British deputy ambassador to discuss his claims about the interference of senior EULEX officials in judicial processes.

“I reported this conversation with Charles Smith to the British Embassy in Kosovo through an email on July 11, 2013. I then met with the British deputy ambassador to discuss the interference of senior EULEX officials in judicial processes. Due to my obligations under the British Official Secrets Act, I cannot now go into detail about that conversation.”

After the verdict, Fatmir Limaj also referred to the debate about the integrity of judges and his experience with earlier processes.

“Don’t forget, only now for two days has there been talk of compromised judges; I have experienced those cases. At least five cases and only now is the judge’s personal character and integrity starting to be mentioned. Are you seeing how important the personal integrity of a judge is?” Limaj declared before the media.

He further said that a judge who, according to him, had implemented “political decisions and orders” in Kosovo, had headed the trial panel that delivered the verdict against the former KLA leaders.

Source: Telegrafi