Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani sharply criticized the request by the Special Prosecutor’s Office for 45-year prison sentences for former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), saying any attempt to equate the KLA’s fight for independence with crimes committed by Serbia undermines trust in justice and threatens long-term peace.
“Kosovo’s independence was the will of its people, achieved through centuries of sacrifice, in which thousands of civilians and martyrs gave their lives, and for which the KLA fought heroically with a just and clean struggle,” Osmani wrote on Facebook. “Genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes were committed by Serbia against the people of Kosovo over centuries. During the last war, Serbia sought to exterminate the Albanian population through mass killings, rapes, destruction of homes, forced displacement of over 80% of Kosovo’s citizens, ethnic cleansing, disappearances, and other horrific crimes. Any effort to equate the KLA’s liberation war with the genocidal aggressor’s crimes undermines justice and severely damages long-term peace.”
Osmani emphasized that Kosovo and its citizens demand justice, asserting that the KLA’s war was just and pure, and that attempts to rewrite history or tarnish the struggle of Kosovo’s people cannot change this truth.
Osmani’s comments came after the Special Prosecutor Kimberly West formally requested maximum sentences of 45 years for each of the accused former KLA leaders: Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi, and Rexhep Selimi. The charges, filed in a confirmed indictment in 2022, accuse the former leaders of participating in a joint criminal enterprise that oversaw war crimes and crimes against humanity, including killings, torture, and unlawful detention in multiple locations during 1998-1999.
The political movement Vetëvendosje (VV) described the sentencing request as a “political intervention in the register of memory and history,” claiming that the process targets the act of liberation itself rather than individual accountability.
“Instead of judging the aggressor, this process criminalizes the resistance of the people,” VV said in a statement. “By purporting to punish specific individuals, the Prosecutor’s Office in fact seeks to criminalize the collective meaning of liberation, depoliticize the war, and turn the struggle for freedom into a perpetual crime.”
VV officials further argued that the KLA never had the hierarchical or state apparatus necessary to commit systematic crimes against humanity, and that the historical context of resisting Serbian aggression is being ignored in favor of a legalistic narrative that inverts the roles of perpetrator and victim.
Former Justice Minister Albulena Haxhiu also condemned the Special Prosecutor’s request as an injustice and an insult to Albanian victims, highlighting that Serbia never faced serious accountability despite documented crimes including mass killings, sexual violence, and forced displacement.
Several political and veteran figures in Kosovo expressed support for the accused KLA leaders. OVL-KLA head Hysni Gucati called West’s sentencing request “scandalous,” while the Democratic Party of Kosovo leader Bedri Hamza said he believes in the innocence of Thaçi, Veseli, Krasniqi, and Selimi, citing the historical truth of Kosovo’s just struggle for freedom. Former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj and other officials also affirmed that the KLA’s actions were legitimate acts of liberation.
In the courtroom, Special Prosecutor James Pace presented evidence alleging that detainees were subjected to unlawful imprisonment, torture, and killings in multiple locations, including Jabllanicë and Llapashticë, citing 437 incidents documented between April 1998 and August 1999. He said most victims were civilians who did not take part in armed conflict.
The former KLA leaders have denied all charges, asserting that the KLA operated without a strict hierarchy, that commanders focused on combating Serbian forces rather than targeting civilians, and that they never intended or executed systematic crimes against humanity.
Endrit Thaçi, son of former President Hashim Thaçi, called for public demonstrations under the slogan “Justice, not politics” as the trial enters its final phase, scheduled for Feb. 17 in Pristina’s Skanderbeg Square.
The Special Prosecutor’s Office maintains that the accused were aware, or should have been aware, of crimes committed under their leadership and that they participated in a criminal enterprise linked to power consolidation during the conflict. The indictment references six counts of war crimes and four counts of crimes against humanity, including unlawful detention, torture, killings, and disappearances, predominantly affecting ethnic Albanian civilians and members of Kosovo’s Democratic League.