Kosovo’s President Justina Shiroka-Pula held her first coordination meeting with the heads of key institutions on Thursday. The meeting was attended by Assembly Speaker Albulena Haxhiu, Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora Glauk Konjufca.
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The president’s office said discussions focused on recent developments, the current situation in the country and issues of importance to the institutions. One of the main issues was the establishment of a working group on a state strategy for the appeal of the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leaders. The meeting was described as part of regular coordination among the highest institutions, but no details were provided about the group’s membership or the timetable for its work.
The meeting took place a month after the ruling by the Specialist Chambers in The Hague. The judges found Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi responsible for war crimes involving the arbitrary detention of 385 people, the cruel treatment of 49 people, the torture of 303 people and the unlawful killing of 96 people. However, they were acquitted of crimes against humanity because the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that there had been a widespread or systematic attack against the civilian population.
Thaçi and Krasniqi were each sentenced to 25 years in prison, Veseli to 18 years and Selimi to 13 years. The sentences total 81 years, including time spent in pretrial detention. All four former leaders have been held in detention in The Hague since November 2020.
Following the ruling, Prime Minister Kurti called on the institutions to agree on a state strategy. He cited both support for the defense teams in the appeals process and diplomatic action, describing the ruling as unjust. This joint institutional approach had also been proposed previously.
The ruling is not final, and the defense teams have announced that they will appeal. The rules of the Specialist Chambers give the parties 60 days from the notice of appeal to submit their arguments, or 30 days when the appeal concerns only the sentence. An appeal may be based on three grounds: an error of law invalidating the judgment, an error of fact that has caused a miscarriage of justice, or an error in sentencing. Thaçi’s defense team has warned that the proceedings could take years.
Shiroka-Pula took office just days ago, during a period of political tension. She was elected with 81 votes following a session that continued late into the night, shortly before the expiry of a constitutional deadline that could have sent the country to early elections. Before her election, lawmakers passed a law limiting the powers of the Specialist Chambers. Meanwhile, outside the Assembly, thousands of protesters were demanding the law’s passage.
Her election was made possible by an agreement between Vetëvendosje and the PDK, which also included limiting the powers of the court in The Hague. The PDK initiative seeks to restrict the Specialist Chambers’ jurisdiction to the crimes mentioned in Dick Marty’s report, while having the war crimes for which the former KLA leaders were convicted tried in Kosovo under international monitoring.
Following the president’s election, Kurti said the institutions would work together to support the former KLA leaders’ appeal. Today’s meeting at the president’s office is being presented as the first concrete step in that direction.
Shiroka-Pula is a professor of economics. She has headed the Kosovo Academy of Sciences and Arts and served as minister of economy from 2008 to 2011.
