Kurti after The Hague ruling: Serbia committed genocide, conviction of KLA leaders is an injustice

Prime Minister Albin Kurti has reacted strongly following the first-instance conviction of Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi, calling the ruling an intolerable injustice and a severe and damaging blow to Kosovo.

Several days before the judgment was announced, Kurti had stressed that during the conflict in Kosovo, genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity against Albanians were committed by the Serbian-Yugoslav regime led by Slobodan Milošević. He added that no court, whether domestic or international, could tarnish the liberation struggle of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

Meanwhile, the Trial Panel had clarified that the proceedings were not intended to call into question the legitimacy of the KLA or its aspiration for Kosovo’s independence, but focused exclusively on the individual criminal responsibility of the four defendants.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s full reaction follows below:

Dear citizens,

The decision to find the four former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army—Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi—guilty, and the extremely harsh sentences imposed on them, constitute an unacceptable injustice, a severe punishment with damaging consequences. Although the judgment may formally have been delivered in the name of the people of Kosovo, this empty formula must not be confused with the true will of the citizens.

This decision must be reviewed and corrected on appeal, and as soon as possible. At this difficult time, we stand with the families of the former KLA leaders and all their fellow liberation fighters.

As is known, everything began on April 15, 2008, with allegations in the Council of Europe by Russian MP Konstantin Kosachev and Serbian MP Miloš Aligrudić, but we must ensure that nothing ended today, September 16, 2026. None of the exaggerated and absurd claims and allegations used to justify the establishment of the Specialist Chambers, beginning with the Yellow House and organ trafficking, could be proven by the Prosecution itself due to a lack of evidence.

Moreover, today’s judgment by the Specialist Chambers rejected the most serious allegation that remained in the indictment: that the KLA had carried out a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population. It was also made clear that these proceedings were not a trial of the legitimacy or integrity of the KLA’s war. Not even the most basic requirement for crimes against humanity was established. The findings of guilt relate to specific allegations of war crimes, including the torture of people considered collaborators of the Serbian regime. These are unjust, but not final, findings and will be subject to review on appeal.

The injustice of the Prosecution’s allegations has been highlighted not only within Kosovo but also beyond it. International figures who had first-hand knowledge of the conflict also testified before the Court about the nature of the liberation struggle and the KLA. They described the KLA as a response to decades of oppression of Albanians and challenged the claim that it was responsible for ethnic cleansing; they also testified against the theory of a centralized command that controlled every action on the ground. This testimony came from people who witnessed the war from positions of direct international responsibility and who confirmed its liberating character. Their detailed and well-reasoned criticism underscores that today’s decision rests on fundamentally inaccurate foundations, both historically and legally. As we have done since the beginning of these proceedings, the Government will continue, using all means at its disposal, to support the accused during the appeals process, in which we expect this injustice to be fully rectified.

This judgment cannot be read outside the history that gave rise to the KLA. The KLA was not the choice of a people seeking war, but the response of a people who, oppressed and threatened in their very existence, sought freedom. The Albanian people of Kosovo experienced the revocation of autonomy, exclusion from institutions, dismissal from jobs, schools and the university, imprisonment, torture and killings. Then came the massacres, the burning of settlements, the mass expulsion of hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, and genocide. This suffering was not the incidental backdrop to the war, but the reality that made resistance a matter of a people’s survival.

No human suffering should be denied or minimized. But it would be equally unjust for findings concerning specific actions to be turned into an indictment of the KLA and a judgment on the liberation struggle. The Kosovo Liberation Army emerged in response to the oppression of a genocidal regime and fought for the liberation of Kosovo. That is its political and historical character, and neither the selective architecture of a judicial mechanism nor one of its judgments can undo it. For a century and a half, from the middle of the 19th century until the final years of the 20th century, 24 programs for the extermination of Albanians were drafted by various but consistently high-level Serbian state, political, academic and pseudoscientific bodies.

The Specialist Chambers were established with a special mandate, but their mandate and activities focused justice on only one side of the war. When only members of one ethnic group are in the dock, while the state apparatus that committed massacres, expulsions and genocidal crimes remains outside the jurisdiction, the appearance of mono-ethnic justice is inevitably created. This perception has been further deepened by the lack of transparency in proceedings, significant parts of which have taken place away from public scrutiny and assessment.

A mechanism in which criminal responsibility is focused solely on members of one people or ethnic community, while the genocidal crimes of the other side remain beyond effective prosecution, raises serious concerns regarding equality before the law, objective impartiality and the legitimacy of the institution itself. Selective justice based on ethnicity runs counter to the fundamental principle that justice must not only be impartial but must also be perceived as such.

Kosovo will continue to support Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi during the appeals proceedings, providing a full, dignified and institutional defense. This is a responsibility to our citizens and an affirmation of the right to challenge a judgment that is not yet final.

Today, specific allegations and actions were judged; the reason the KLA came into being was not judged and cannot be condemned, nor can the KLA be tarnished. Because when the homeland could no longer endure bloodthirsty men, it called for liberators, and their name was the Kosovo Liberation Army.