Kurti: Funding for former KLA leaders is planned in the 2027 budget

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has said that financial support for the four former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), who are facing trial proceedings in The Hague, will be planned in the 2027 budget. He explained that the state strategy for legal and institutional assistance during the appeal proceedings must first be drafted.

Kurti’s response came after a question from Democratic Party of Kosovo MP Ariana Musliu-Shoshi, who asked when the funds would be allocated. The prime minister said that the strategy’s vision, mechanisms and measures must first be defined, after which the costs of implementation would be assessed.

“At government meetings, we will vote on the 2027 budget, and it will include all the necessary budget lines for each area, including financial support for the four former KLA leaders. However, the state strategy must be drafted first, and the costs determined afterward. The idea, vision, mechanisms and measures must be established first, rather than determining the cost before them,” Kurti said.

He added that the work should be left to the working group established by the government, stressing that he could not present himself as a spokesperson for the process that the group would carry out.

The government has established a working group to prepare and coordinate the state strategy. It will be led by the first deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs and diaspora, Glauk Konjufca.

According to the prime minister, the group will provide legal and institutional support for the appeal proceedings, while also coordinating diplomatic actions aimed at documenting, defending and affirming on the international stage the historical truth of Kosovo’s liberation war. It will cooperate with the defense teams to determine the need for documents, professional expertise and institutional assistance, including from local and international experts.

An important part of the group’s mandate will be to organize and review historical, legal and judicial documents, including materials from the trials of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia related to crimes committed during the war in Kosovo and Serbia. Kurti said that this documentary basis would be used to support the defense teams and establish sustained international communication based on facts and arguments.

Kurti described the initiative as an all-institutional and cross-party commitment, stressing that the KLA and the people’s liberation war constitute a shared legacy. According to him, defending the truth of this war goes beyond government mandates and party differences. The working group has been tasked with drafting the initial proposal for the strategy, defining priority measures, the responsible institutions and implementation deadlines.