Several Facebook pages published yesterday (April 3) a photo of former Minister of Justice, Hajredin Kuçi, with the caption "Prof. Hajredin Kuçi begins work in defense of former KLA soldiers!".
After fact-checking conducted by hibrid.info, it has been confirmed that this photograph is old, published in February 2022.
Also, Kuçi was not engaged as part of the defense of all former soldiers of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), as claimed by some Facebook pages, but at that time he was part of the defense of Kadri Veseli at the Special Court in The Hague.
Links to the Facebook post from the pages "Pika Press" and "Mitrovica SOT":
After research conducted through online search engines, hibrid.info has managed to confirm that Kuçi's photo was taken from articles published in February 2022, in several online media in Kosovo. (see here and here)
In these articles, it becomes clear that the former Minister of Justice had become part of Kadri Veseli's defense at the Special Court in The Hague, and that this was confirmed by the latter's lawyer, Ben Emmerson.
It is worth noting that Kuçi is only involved in Kadri Veseli's defense team, while yesterday (April 3) he participated in the beginning of the trial against former KLA leaders, Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi. (see here and here)
This photo of Kuçi with the same claim was also published in February of this year by several other Facebook pages, which was also covered by hibrid.info. (see here)
Analyze:
Several Facebook pages have published an image of Hajredin Kuçi taken at the premises of the Special Court in The Hague, claiming that the former Minister of Justice has begun work in defense of former KLA soldiers.
After verifying the facts, hibrid.info has confirmed that the photo was published in February 2022, at the time when Kuçi became part of Kadri Veseli's defense at the Special Court in The Hague.
Therefore, the claim made by the above-mentioned sites is incorrect. Based on the working methodology, hibrid.info evaluates it as "Fake News".
Reasoning:
The "Fake News" rating is given to media reports that are entirely the product of a medium that itself contains factually incorrect claims or information.
Content that is considered fake news can be reliably determined to have been created and distributed with the intent to misinform the public, i.e., to present a claim that is completely false as fact.