Thousands rally in Kosovo ahead of ex-leader's war crimes verdict

Tens of thousands of people gathered on Saturday in Kosovo's capital to demand the acquittal of former President Hashim Thaci, days ahead of a long-awaited war crimes verdict against the ex-guerrilla leader.

A Kosovo court based in The Hague will on Wednesday issue a ruling that will end a more than five-year legal fight for Thaci, the former political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) who resigned as the country's president when he was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2020.

Prosecutors allege that Thaci and fellow former fighters Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi were responsible for a campaign of persecution involving murder, torture, enforced disappearance and unlawful detention during and immediately after the war with Serbian forces in 1998-1999.

But inside Kosovo, the men are widely seen as wartime heroes and Thaci in particular as a key independence figure for Europe's youngest democracy.

On Saturday, chanting "UCK" (KLA), protesters carried photos of the four with inscriptions: "In the name of the people, declare them innocent", "Liberators, bring them home", and "Kosovo is waiting."

Addressing the crowd, leader of war veterans, Hysni Gucati said that "Kosovo's freedom was won through sacrifice."

"No courtroom will be able to erase this truth."

The crowds marched to the city centre, where a large screen has for weeks counted down to sentencing day.

"They should definitely be released because they fought for the freedom of Kosovo and did not commit any crimes. They are liberators," Shyhrete Kelmendi, a high school economics teacher, said.

Limon Dervishaj, who has been working in Switzerland for 40 years, came specifically to participate in the demonstrations.

"The trial was purely political against the Kosovo Liberation Army," he said.

"If they are not released, there will be unrest in all Albanian areas, but also in the diaspora… I think there will be strong protests throughout Europe because of the injustices against our liberators."

The crowds marched to the city centre, where a large screen has for weeks counted down to sentencing day.

The rally was organised by Freedom Has A Name, a group established to advocate for Thaci and other detained former guerrilla leaders.

It, like many KLA veterans, frames the group's armed struggle as a just war of liberation, and argues the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC), which Pristina established, is politically motivated.

But the prosecution alleges Thaci and his three co-accused are guilty of multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity; all four have pleaded not guilty.

Their lawyers have argued that the KLA was a decentralised, local resistance incapable of structured systemic abuse.

Since its inception, the KSC, with its mandate to specifically prosecute KLA crimes, has drawn opposition from the country's ethnic Albanian majority -- while its use of evidence provided by Serbia, which still refuses to recognise Kosovo's independence, remains controversial.

Established by the Balkan nation's parliament, it was based in The Hague to avoid the witness intimidation and political interference that many blamed for scuppering previous attempts at justice.

Thaci became Kosovo's first prime minister following its 2008 declaration of independence and later served as president.

After surrendering to the court, he has remained in detention in The Hague ever since.