Brussels/Prishtina, 23 October 2026, dtt-net.com – The European Union told Kosovo Albanian lawmakers I a public statement that they have no right to change the law on special war crimes law locate in The Hague, without its prior consent, thus welcoming the decision of the newly elected Kosovan President to return to the legislative body for review, following a weird request made by the very same opposition party which on October 7 made the parliament to change some elements of it following the sentencing of its former leader and former President Hashim Thaçi and three other former leaders of the now disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) which fought for liberation and independence from Serbia, on war crimes charges during the 1998-1999 war.
“The European Union welcomes the decision by Kosovo’s President Justina Shiroka-Pula to return the law, amending and supplementing the Law on the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, to the National Assembly for reconsideration,” spokesperson of EU foreign service EEAS.
The changes sponsored by the main opposition Democratic Party (PD) would limit the mandate of the court and also include eventual retrial to be moved to the court in capital Prishtina, in case the appeal panel decides retrial.
But the EU has expressed “deep concern” without explicitly clarifying what exactly it is contesting in the changes of October 7 during the tense session.
“The EU has consistently expressed its deep concern about the initiative to amend the Law on the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, both prior and after its adoption by the Kosovo Assembly on 6 October 2026. In the spirit of the 2014 exchange of letters between the EU High Representative and the Kosovo President, which sets out the modalities for consulting the EU before changing the legislation, we expect that the European Union be consulted if discussions resume in the Assembly. Rule of law and the protection of fundamental rights, including those of the victims and witnesses, remain of paramount importance,” spokesperson said.
“The Kosovo Specialist Chambers is an independent judicial institution established by decisions of the Kosovo Assembly in 2014–2015, based on a Special Agreement with the EU, operating within the Kosovo legal system and enshrined in Kosovo’s Constitution. Their current mandate and independence must be fully and unreservedly respected. The EU stands in solidarity with all victims, survivors and their families from all communities affected by wartime atrocities,” reads the statement.
American Judge Charles Smith announced on September 16th that the panel of judges sentenced the four for being responsible on charges of “arbitrary detention of 385 individuals (Albanian and Serbs); cruel treatment against 49 individuals; torture against 303 individuals and murder against 96 individuals” in Kosovo and northern Albania by members of the KLA they were leaders of.
The sentences take credit of their times served in The Hague court since 2020 detention.
According to the verdict, the victims were Albanians and Serbs considered by the Kosovo guerilla members of being collaborators of Serbia, spies and traitors.
According to the indictment, the crimes charged were committed from at least April 1998 to June 1999 and took place in several locations across Kosovo as well as in Kukës and Cahan, in Northern Albania.
All four have denied the charges.
Two other former KLA members are already sentenced to prison terms in separate trials in The Hague.
The prosecution had sought 45 years of imprisonment for each of the four former KLA leaders.
Earlier this month the prosecution sought additional 6 years of imprisonment for Thaçi on charges of pressure on witnesses during the trial.
Formation of the EU-sponsored and USA-backed special court was triggered by a report of the late Swiss politician, Dick Marty, adopted in 2011 by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Marty said in his report that Thaçi, the former speaker of Parliament Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi, also a former Speaker of Parliament, and former member of the Parliament Rexhep Selimi, engaged in human organ harvesting of Serb and Albanian civilians during and after the 1998-1999 war, which they have denied.
The indictments by the prosecution have not included human harvesting allegations by Marty.
Many in Kosovo see the court financed by the EU, UK and the USA; as “mono-ethnic” and of “selective justice” imposed by western powers.
The office of the prosecution has ignored war crimes committed by Serbia army, police and paramilitaries on ethnic Albanian civilians during the 1998-1999 war, despite EU-27 governments saying seven years ago
that the law, written at the EU headquarter in Brussels, enables investigation and prosecution of “all alleged war crimes”.
The EU Council of Ministers in June 2019 said that the law of August 2015 of Kosovo parliament, with which the court was formed after pushed to change the Constitution first, enables the court to tackle all crimes, including those committed by the regime of the then President of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic.
Nearly 13,000 Albanian civilians were massacred by Serb forces, 20,000 girls and women raped, 120,000 houses destroyed and more than 800 000 deported forcibly to Albania and North Macedonia during the two-year war by Serbia forces.
“The existing legal framework enables proper investigation and prosecution of all alleged war crimes,” reads the text of conclusions of the EU Council of 18 June 2019.
But no charges are filed by special court’s prosecution against any members of Serbia forces, despite.
Around 15OO civilians are still missing from the two-year war, of which around 500 Serbs believed to be killed by KLA members in revenge.
