Protesters in The Hague on September 14, 2025. Photograph: BIRN.
The purple and black of the Albanian flag dominated the streets of The Hague on Sunday as a whole bunch of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, different nations within the Balkans, EU states, the UK and the US gathered to indicate assist for former president Hashim Thaci and three different wartime Kosovo Liberation Military leaders who’re on trial for conflict crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity.
Whereas the protest formally began at 2 p.m. native time in a delegated space between the Kosovo Specialist Chambers conflict crimes court docket and the detention centre the place Thaci and his co-defendants have been held for nearly 5 years, KLA conflict veterans and their supporters started gathering from the morning onwards to voice their opposition to what they see as a biased trial.
The protesters marches by way of the streets of the Dutch metropolis, singing patriotic songs and chanting “KLA” and the names of the 4 defendants: Thaci, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi, Rexhep Selimi. Some held a banner with the phrases: “Freedom to our warriors and leaders who introduced these completely happy days to us.”
A number of protesters who travelled to The Hague from Kosovo, Belgium, Finland, Germany, France and the US instructed BIRN that they need justice for the wartime KLA leaders and referred to as the court docket “unjust” and “biased in opposition to Kosovo Albanians’ simply conflict [against Serbian oppression]”.
The protest comes a day earlier than the defendants’ legal professionals start the case for the defence. Thaci’s first witness is former assistant US secretary of state James Rubin.
Speaking to the protesters in The Hague, the Dutch ambassador to Kosovo on the time of the institution of the Specialist Chambers in 2015, Robert Bosch, recalled how he met Thaci on the time the court docket was being established by the Kosovo authorities beneath strain from their Western allies.
“He was fearful however I instructed him there’s nothing to fret about as a result of if the trial is truthful, you may be free on account of lack of proof. Clearly, I used to be fallacious,” Bosch stated.
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers are a part of Kosovo’s justice system however primarily based in The Hague with a global workers to make sure truthful proceedings after witness intimidation issues in earlier KLA-related instances. However many ethnic Albanians and supporters of the accused insist that regardless of this, the proceedings have been unfair to the defendants.
Many prosecution witnesses have testified behind closed doorways to guard their identities on account of fears of reprisals, however this has led to allegations of an absence of transparency.
The judging panel has set an estimated cut-off date for the defence case as November 14. After closing statements, the panel has 90 days to contemplate its verdict, suggesting it could are available spring 2026.
The 4 defendants are accused of getting particular person and command duty for crimes dedicated in opposition to prisoners held at KLA detention services in Kosovo and neighbouring Albania, together with 102 murders.
The crimes had been allegedly dedicated throughout and simply after the conflict in 1998 and 1999.
Thaci was indicted in October 2020 and resigned as president the next month. He has been in detention in The Hague ever since.
