Leaked files scandal shakes Hague Tribunal, one of its key figures resigns

Gazeta Express

17/09/2020 16:19

Following the scandal with the leaked files to the offices of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) War Veterans Association, sources told Gazeta Express that one of the main prosecutors in The Hague-based Specialist Chambers has resigned. Leaked files reportedly have revealed the names of witnesses and their testimonies.

The Deputy Prosecutor at the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office (SPO), Kwai Hong Ip, has resigned after thousands of files, which, allegedly contain the names of witnesses and their testimonies, fell into the hands of KLA veterans. Gazeta Express reached out the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office (SPO) today about the resignation of the deputy prosecutor, but the SPO declined to comment on this issue.

Ip is a British barrister with extensive experience of both international prosecutions and the Western Balkans, who has been Schwendiman’s Deputy both as Specialist Prosecutor and as Lead Prosecutor of the Special Investigative Task Force (SITF), the forerunner of the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office. In his capacity as lead prosecutor of the Specialist Prosecutor’s office, Kwai Hong Ip, has interviewed members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) who questioned as suspects. Gazeta Express has learned that the scandal of leaked files delivered to the KLA Association unanimously is the reason behind Ip’s resignation.

Ip joined the SITF in June 2012 as Deputy Lead Prosecutor and served as Acting Lead Prosecutor between August 2014 and May 2015 after the departure of the original Lead Prosecutor, Ambassador Clint Williamson, and before the arrival of Schwendiman. From November 2009 until he joined the SITF, Ip served as a trial counsel in the Office of the Prosecutor at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in The Hague. /GazetaExpress/