Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci’s lawyer Luka Misetic told the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on Wednesday that the charges of war crimes and crimes and humanity have not been proven.

“The totality of the evidence establishes a consensus [between] international witnesses, those within the KLA [Kosovo Liberation Army] and material evidence, that establishes reasonable doubt regarding the [prosecution’s] claims,” Misetic said.

“This trial is not a verification of Thaci’s life. This is a verification of the claims of the prosecution. Thaci should enjoy the presumption of innocence,” he added.

Misetic noted that the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia ruled that Serbian President Milan Milutinovic was not criminally responsible for wartime crimes committed in Kosovo by Serbian forces because he was “a political figure who did not have effective control over the forces” of the former Yugoslavia.

Misetic then pointed out the prosecution at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers was arguing that Thaci, “the Kosovo Albanian political leader of the KLA, a non-state armed group that had existed for only a few months, had effective control and was criminally responsible” for crimes committed by KLA fighters.

The four defendants in the trial – Thaci, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi – are accused of having individual and command responsibility for crimes committed against prisoners held at KLA detention facilities in Kosovo and neighbouring Albania, including 102 murders.

The crimes were allegedly committed between roughly March 1998 and September 1999, during and just after the war in Kosovo. All four accused have pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution has requested sentences of 45 years in jail for each defendant – causing outrage in Kosovo.

During the prosecution’s closing statements, prosecutor Matt Halling told the court that the high-level international figures who testified in Thaci’s defence “don’t understand that Thaci was able to mask what was actually happening [with criminal violence]”.

But Misetic asked the court how was possible that these international figures and the chief of the KLA’s General Staff, Bislim Zyrapi, had no information about the intent to commit crimes, “but at a lower level, KLA personnel had the opportunity to receive criminal messages [from the defendants]?”

He also questioned how the prosecution could claim that “Thaci implemented the common criminal purpose”, while Zyrapi, who was present in many meetings with him, was not named as a member of the same joint criminal enterprise in the indictment.

He argued that the prosecutors “ignore all of the trial evidence that discredits their case”.

The so-called special court is part of Kosovo’s justice system but based in The Hague with an international staff to ensure fair proceedings, after witness intimidation problems arose in previous KLA-related cases. Many prosecution witnesses have testified behind closed doors to protect their identities due to fears of reprisals, but this has led to allegations of a lack of transparency.

Closing statements will continue until February 18. The judges should then decide on a verdict within 90 days.