Lahi Brahimaj, Fatmir Limaj, Sylejman Selimi, Rrustem Mustafa, Latif Gashi, Shukri Buja and Sabit Geci were not defendants in the trial of Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi. Nevertheless, their names were included in the September 16 judgment of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague.

When delivering its guilty verdict for war crimes against the four former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the trial panel of what is also known as the Specialist Court said that the seven other figures had been part of a “joint criminal enterprise.”

According to the court’s findings, Limaj, Geci, Mustafa and Gashi “were zealous implementers of the criminal purpose targeting opponents.”

What did the Specialist Court mean by “joint criminal enterprise”?

The trial panel justified the existence of a “common criminal purpose” by referring to several elements, including the killings of Albanians suspected of collaboration and of Serbs, political communiqués, special warfare, detention centers, as well as the tolerance, acceptance and encouragement of crimes against opponents.

The judges found that the four former KLA commanders had assigned themselves and others roles and functions that enabled them to “control the implementation of the common criminal purpose.”

Claims of the “retrospective criminalization” of the KLA leadership

Geoffrey Nice, a former prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), described as “unprecedented” the way Brahimaj, Limaj, Sylejman Selimi, Mustafa, Gashi, Buja and Geci were mentioned in the judgment against the four former KLA leaders.

In a response to Radio Free Europe (RFE), Nice explained that judgments may state that a person “acted as part of a joint criminal enterprise with unknown persons.”

Artan Qerkini, a lawyer licensed to practice before the Specialist Chambers, told RFE that the trial panel needed to include other “members” in this “common purpose” so that the four convicted men could be linked to crimes committed by other people.

Nevenka Tromp, an ICTY researcher who also closely followed the proceedings in the “Thaçi et al.” case, said that with this conclusion, the Specialist Court had described the entire KLA General Staff as participants in a “criminal enterprise.”

“It is a retrospective criminalization of the KLA’s central command structure as a whole, on a scale that the ICTY’s own judgments never established,” Tromp told RFE.

Can the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office investigate the seven individuals?

The summary of the September 16 judgment states that the seven KLA figures had agreed to the “common criminal purpose.” At the same time, the document clarifies that they have not been found guilty and that they continue to enjoy the presumption of innocence.

Artan Qerkini stressed that the inclusion of their names in the judgment cannot be considered a criminal complaint against them.

“The Specialist Prosecutor’s Office has had these names in its indictment since 2020, and for six years it has not brought charges against them,” he said.

Regarding the possibility that the seven individuals mentioned could face legal consequences, Qerkini said Sylejman Selimi’s case was “definitively closed,” as the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office had terminated its investigation into him in February 2025.

He added that the others had also previously faced judicial proceedings and that the criminal law principle of “no one may be tried twice for the same matter” applies in these cases.

The Specialist Prosecutor’s Office told RFE weeks ago that it does not comment on “the existence or details of any investigation.”

According to the institution, its mandate will continue “until the Council of the European Union notifies Kosovo’s institutions that the relevant investigations and proceedings have been completed.”

Shukri Buja, who was mentioned by the trial panel on September 16, does not believe that criminal proceedings can be initiated against him, as Specialist prosecutors closed in 2024 an investigation that had begun five years earlier.

“I am the first case in which they closed the investigation, and in a way they declared my war to have been just and unstained,” Buja told RFE.

He said that being described as a “member of a joint criminal enterprise” does not harm his reputation. According to Buja, the judgment that “unjustly” tarnished the four former KLA leaders was a different matter.

What legal proceedings have the seven figures faced?

Several of the seven individuals mentioned in the judgment have been questioned by the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office in The Hague.

Before that, they had various experiences with the justice system in cases related to war crimes.

Lahi Brahimaj and Fatmir Limaj were tried by the ICTY, but both were ultimately acquitted. Limaj was also acquitted in the “Kleçka” and “Bellanica” cases in Kosovo.

Sylejman Selimi, Rrustem Mustafa and Latif Gashi were convicted of war crimes by courts in Kosovo. Selimi was later acquitted during a retrial in one of the cases.

Sabit Geci was convicted in Kosovo of war crimes against civilians, while Shukri Buja has not faced any war crimes trial.

Former prosecutor Nice said the full judgment must be published before it can be understood whether the court will provide reasoning for including these seven names in the case against the four KLA figures. / RFE

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Only 8.6% of individuals in Albania had purchased tickets online for concerts, festivals or other events during the three months preceding the 2025 survey, according to Eurostat data.

This percentage is far below the European Union average, where 26.8% of citizens had purchased tickets online. In the EU, more than one in four people use the internet to obtain event tickets, while in Albania fewer than one in 11 do so.

Eurostat reports that, compared with 2024, the share of EU citizens who purchased tickets online increased by 3.8 percentage points, driven by the expansion of digital platforms and the return of concerts and festivals to the European cultural calendar.

Albania Behind Serbia and North Macedonia

Internet use for purchasing tickets remains limited throughout the Western Balkans.

Serbia had the highest percentage in the region, with 11.4% of individuals having purchased event tickets online, followed by North Macedonia at 10.8%.

Albania ranked next at 8.6%, ahead of Bosnia and Herzegovina at 7.4%, Kosovo at 7.35% and Montenegro at 6%.

Turkey also recorded a lower rate than Albania, at 6.2%.

The gap is also evident when compared with neighboring EU countries. In Greece, 38.9% of individuals had purchased tickets online, more than four times the rate in Albania.

The percentage was 28.3% in Croatia, 20.9% in Slovenia and 11.4% in Bulgaria. Despite its much larger market for concerts and cultural activities, Italy had a relatively low rate by EU standards, at 14.2%.

Ireland and Norway Lead the Ranking

Among the European countries for which data are available, Ireland had the highest percentage, with 51.5% of individuals having purchased tickets online.

It was followed by Norway at 50.3%, the Netherlands at 48.1% and Denmark at 47.9%. The percentage was 44.2% in Finland, 42.2% in Switzerland and 38.9% in Greece.

In these countries, online purchasing has become the main way to obtain tickets for concerts, festivals, performances and other activities.

Within the European Union, the lowest rates were recorded in Bulgaria at 11.4%, Romania at 12.6% and Italy at 14.2%.

Kanye West Concert Exposed the Limits of Domestic Demand

The limited use of online ticketing platforms was also reflected in ticket sales for singer Kanye West’s concert in Tirana. He is one of the world’s biggest artists and ranks as the 10th most-streamed artist on Spotify.

The event was planned for a large audience of 60,000 people, including tourists, but sales proceeded more slowly than forecast.

Organizers had stated that at least 40,000 tickets needed to be sold for the concert to be financially viable, while a considerable number of seats remained available just days before it was due to take place.

One of the obstacles was the price of the tickets, which ranged from 120 to 330 euros, high levels relative to the purchasing power of the domestic audience.

Interest from foreign tourists was also weaker than initially expected, as Albania is not known as a country that hosts events of this scale.

In the final days before the concert, the government allocated around 4.2 million euros to organize the event, citing tourism promotion. The funding was provided at a time when sales had not reached the level organizers said was necessary for financial viability, and was presented by the government as an effort to save the concert and, along with it, the country’s image.

The case highlighted the difficulty of organizing major events based solely on domestic demand in a market where purchasing power is low and internet use for buying tickets is among the most limited in Europe./MONITOR

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