Before Jack Smith Tried to Jail Trump, he Was Throwing Elected Heads of State in Europe in Jail

It was December 2010. Together with Hashim Thaçi and Bekim Çollaku, we were at a restaurant in Prishtina called “Imixh,” watching a football match when someone told us that an article had come out in The Guardian. It cited a Swiss senator named Dick Marty, alleging that the Prime Minister of Kosovo was suspected of organ trafficking.

I can’t recall how we managed to watch the rest of the game.

This incident happened between Thaçi’s first and second terms as Prime Minister.

Without properly reading the report or examining its sources, various NGO leaders and politicians quickly began calling for Thaçi’s removal from the political scene, arguing that he was no longer suitable as the key political figure of the young state.

People said that Thaçi, burdened by these accusations, was becoming a liability to the fragile state.

I clearly remember that, in those days, Thaçi expressed his willingness in a press conference in Brussels to have these claims by the Swiss senator investigated by independent bodies.

The senator’s allegations were something between horror movies and science fiction. It was said that UÇK leaders had captured Serbian hostages during the war, transported them to a house in Albania, and extracted their organs for sale. That house was reportedly painted yellow.

Today, I assure you that medical operations involving organ transplants, as Dick Marty described, couldn’t be performed even now in Kosovo’s University Clinical Center.

Still, when many people start believing a lie, even rational minds begin to doubt.

Notably, the first person who mentioned these crimes was a Russian deputy in the Council of Europe named Konstantin Kosachev. This same Russian deputy, two years ago when the war in Ukraine began, accused Ukrainian forces of harvesting organs from captured Russians and selling them. When the Syrian conflict began, he accused forces fighting Bashar Al-Assad of taking organs from civilians and selling them.

Allegations of organ trafficking have been part of Russia’s special operations wherever they’ve been involved, whether directly or indirectly.

In the case of Kosovo, these accusations tarnished the entire UÇK General Staff and Thaçi. Since Russia and Serbia had lost the battle to prevent Kosovo’s independence, they had now begun a new battle to delegitimize it. Delegitimizing independence involves accusing and condemning those who fought for and declared that independence as criminals and ruthless bandits.

Thaçi paved the way for investigations. He passed all the necessary laws and constitutional amendments in Parliament to allow these crimes to be investigated, knowing he was opening the door for investigations against himself.

Political opponents were slandering him, saying Thaçi was doing this because he believed he wouldn’t be arrested. When he was arrested, they said he didn’t know or that he was deceived, creating various insinuations.

The indisputable fact is that Thaçi made himself available to justice.

Extensive investigations followed. A US attorney and war crimes expert named David Schwendiman took over the case. After two years, he said there wasn’t enough basis for an indictment, but at that moment, he was dismissed, and a new prosecutor, Jack Smith, was appointed. This prosecutor said he could file an indictment.

I believe you’ve heard the name Jack Smith.

Jack Smith ordered Thaçi’s arrest a year before he even had an indictment ready. He ordered Thaçi’s arrest just as Thaçi was preparing to go to the White House to sign an agreement mediated by Donald Trump.

Shortly after filing the indictment, Jack Smith returned to Washington, this time with an indictment against Donald Trump.

Do these two cases connect? Analyze that for yourself.

To highlight the paradox of this situation, Article 1 of the law establishing the Specialized Chambers states that the indictment must be based on Dick Marty’s report. The indictment has no connection to Dick Marty’s report.

The indictment started with accusations of organ trafficking but ended with cases that had already been judged by the Hague, UNMIK, and EULEX.

Thaçi is being tried for cases where Ramush Haradinaj, Fatmir Limaj, Rrustem Mustafa, and every other commander were found not guilty.

There is no mention of organ trafficking at all. None. Instead, the core of the UÇK General Staff is accused of organized crime—not as individuals, but as a structure.

And if there’s organized crime in this case, then the ones who orchestrated this tribunal are guilty of organized crime.

It’s the war of the UÇK that is being tried there, it’s Kosovo’s independence that is being delegitimized.

I have no answer as to why something like this happened. I have no answer for how it came to be that the Russian special operations interests aligned with those of Western allies.

I met with Thaçi a month ago.

His treatment there is inhumane. There is no privacy. Alongside me in the meeting were a police officer and a translator.

Despite all these circumstances, Thaçi was holding up and smiling. We discussed that night we were together in the restaurant when the news broke about him.

He hoped, and I hoped, that the political circumstances in America would change and justice would prevail.

It seems something of that sort might have happened Tuesday November 5th.

My relationship with Thaçi has not always been good. Rest assured, if I wasn’t fully convinced about what I’m saying, I wouldn’t be here before you to seek your support for Hashim Thaçi.

By supporting Thaçi, you’re not just supporting the individual Hashim; you’re supporting the UÇK’s cause and Kosovo’s history, which has been attacked and put at risk.