On 15 November 2007, Trial Chamber I at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) granted the Prosecution’s motion to drop the contempt of court charges against Avni Krasniqi and Sadri Selca. Following Krasniqi’s arrest on 9 November, a second witness in the Haradinaj et al case, Sadri Selca, was indicted and subsequently arrested on 13 November for failing to testify before the Tribunal and charged with contempt of court.

These two Prosecution witnesses in the case against Ramush Haradinaj, Idriz Balaj and Lahi Brahimaj – former commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) – failed to testify before the Trial Chamber after having each been served a subpoena summoning them to the Tribunal. The two recent arrests followed that of Shefqet Kabashi, a third witness in the Haradinaj et al case, who refused to testify on 5 June 2007 and was likewise charged with contempt of court.

After spending several days in custody, both Krasniqi and Selca agreed to testify in the case. Krasniqi began giving evidence in court on 14 November regarding the killing of an Albanian woman from Kosovo on 12 August 1998. Sadri Selca subsequently confirmed Krasniqi’s testimony regarding the killing.