Faton Mehmeti: PDK tried to dig graves for others but ended up digging its own

Political analyst Faton Mehmeti told “Bota sot” that the Democratic Party of Kosovo’s initiative to change the law on the Special Court amounts to an attempt to clean up the image of this political force. He added that these changes would not bring any benefit to Hashim Thaçi and other former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

According to him, PDK simply wanted to “save face,” because it had been the driving force behind the establishment of the Special Court. When the party realized what it had done by sending its founders — Thaçi, Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and others — to the defendants’ bench, it launched the initiative to amend the draft law to cleanse itself of responsibility, even though hypothetically these changes would not help them.

Mehmeti assessed that the new proposals are very likely to be rejected by the Constitutional Court or by the Special Court, and he considered them a PDK strategy to distance itself from responsibility for creating this court.

He stressed that the party had not expected its former leaders to end up in the defendants’ dock.

“Most likely this will fail, either by the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, because, as we saw, even the German ambassador went there and clearly stated that international agreements and Kosovo’s obligations cannot be changed by Assembly decisions. Even if the Constitutional Court does not strike it down, I believe the Special Court will reject these changes. In short, as the saying goes, the mountain shook and a mouse came out — so nothing will come of it,” he said.

According to him, this is only a PDK strategy to cleanse itself of that action, which, as they now realize, put its own people in prison.

“Trying to dig someone else’s grave, they dug their own. Thaçi never thought he would end up in that court himself; he simply thought he would send some people, some zone commanders, while he himself would remain clean,” Mehmeti concluded.

In 2015, the Assembly had approved the legal basis for the Special Court with the support of Hashim Thaçi and PDK. In 2026, this party initiated legal changes to this court, but the European Union opposed them, stressing that they contravene Kosovo’s international obligations.