Beqiri: We Are 100 Percent Convinced the Verdict Will Not Be Upheld on Appeal

Mentor Beqiri, the lawyer of Jakup Krasniqi, has said the defense team expects the Appeals proceedings to conclude within 12 months, expressing confidence that the first-instance verdict will not be upheld.

On Debat Plus, Beqiri said the defense fully believes in the overturning of the first-instance verdict.

“I believe we will finish sooner than twelve months. But it can be sped up further. We 100 percent believe and are convinced about the case that this verdict cannot be upheld by any judicial panel,” Beqiri declared.

He said this applies, in his view, not only to the Appeals Court, but also in a broader assessment by the international legal community.

“This verdict cannot be upheld by any judicial panel, whether the Appeals Court, but we do not believe anyone from the international legal community could uphold it either,” he said.

Beqiri also spoke about the functioning of the Specialist Chambers, mentioning the first instance, the second instance, the third instance and the Constitutional Chamber.

According to him, the principle of two and three instances applies, while he called it “a bit strange” that, in his view, the Specialist Chambers’ structure has a president.

“Of course the principle of two and three instances applies, but it is a bit strange to me how there can be two and three instances when you have a president or a leading head of this tribunal,” Beqiri said.

He stressed that the Appeals judges have the duty to review and, in his view, correct errors that may have been made in the first-instance verdict.

“The members of the judicial panel at the second instance have the obligation to correct all the errors identified in the first-instance verdict, which for us are numerous,” Beqiri said.