The trial against the former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) will begin on April 3.

This was confirmed this Wednesday by the presiding judge, Charles L Smith.

The decision was taken after such a date was proposed by the lawyers of the accused and there were no objections from the Office of the Specialized Prosecutor.

In the last part of the preparatory conference for the prosecution, it was announced that the trial begins with the opening statement of the prosecution, which is expected to last up to five hours.

“The case begins on April 3 at 09:00, the opening statement of the ZPS will last no more than five hours, and the representative of the victims, as you said, 45 minutes. Thaçi’s defense will take three hours, Selim’s defense one hour at most, Krasniqi’s defense one and a half hours, and there will also be questions from the jury. 45 minutes opening statement of Vesel’s defense. We ask the parties to avoid statements of a political nature in their statements, in those statements they should focus on essential issues related to their evidence and arguments and not to repeat the things they said in the previous files”, said the president of the court.