“180 years in prison for KLA leaders”, Rama to the Prosecution: Madness, shamelessness, cruelty, a bomb on the people of Kosovo
Express newspaper
15/02/2026 11:42
Albanian Prime Minister Ei Rama has spoken about the ongoing trial at the Hague Special Court against former KLA leaders. Rama said there is not enough evidence to directly link the crimes to Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi.
“The Hague Prosecutor’s Office requested 45 years in prison for Hashim Thaçi and for each of the other three leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi. It took me and I honestly need, I need time to understand how such a thing, such madness, such shamelessness, such cruelty, can be confronted with words.
The request for 45 years in prison for the four significant figures of the Liberation War was a bomb dropped on the people and the Republic of Kosovo. A completely unworthy prosecution, which, in order to examine the bloody history of the Kosovo Liberation War, conducted a six-year investigation and came up with the claim that during the years ’98-99, crimes against humanity and war crimes were committed against civilians. But there is no international law that allows punishments on such claims and without any clear evidence that there is a plan and an organized force to attack and take the lives of civilians as such, because they are civilians.”, Rama said regarding the Special Prosecution’s claim to sentence the former KLA leaders to 45 years in prison each.
He criticized The Hague prosecutors, saying that this claim is not only a shame for them, but also for the states that support and pay for that court.
“Also, there is no type of legislation and no international law that paves the way for the punishment of a leader in a liberation war, just because he was a leader. But, without proving that he gave orders to attack civilians, that he had real control over all combat formations in the territory of a liberation army in the name, but of a set of forces united by the same ideal and purpose, but not in the same organization in the territory or that he had any other direct connection with criminal acts of this nature.
And that kind of prosecution failed to produce even a single piece of evidence to support this cruel request after six or so years of investigation supported by a chain of democratic states, which should feel ashamed of such a charade. This is not a shame for some prosecutors, for that kind of international idiot who came out and read nonsense. This is a shame for the states that support that court, that pay that court, that provide dizzying salaries for characters of this ignorance and at the same time this… I don’t know what to say, I don’t know what to say.”, the prime minister added in his podcast “talk”, Klan reported.