Hashim Thaci supporters rally before war crimes verdict

Tens of thousands of people rallied in Pristina on Saturday to demand the acquittal of former Kosovo president Hashim Thaci, days before a Hague-based Kosovo court is due to issue a war crimes verdict against him and three other former Kosovo Liberation Army figures.

The court is due to rule on September 16 in the case against Thaci, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi. Thaci, the former political leader of the KLA, resigned as Kosovo's president when he was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2020.

Prosecutors allege the four men were responsible for a campaign of persecution involving murder, torture, enforced disappearance and unlawful detention during and immediately after the 1998-1999 war with Serbian forces. All four have pleaded not guilty.

At Saturday's rally, protesters chanted "UCK", the Albanian initials for the KLA, and carried photos of the four men with messages calling for them to be declared innocent and brought home. The rally was organised by Freedom Has A Name, a group that advocates for Thaci and other detained former guerrilla leaders.

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers was established by Kosovo's parliament but based in The Hague. Its mandate to prosecute alleged KLA crimes has drawn opposition from many among Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority, while defence lawyers have argued that the KLA was a decentralised resistance movement incapable of structured systemic abuse.

Thaci became Kosovo's first prime minister after its 2008 declaration of independence and later served as president. He has remained in detention in The Hague since surrendering to the court.