Prime Minister Edi Rama, a day before the celebration of Kosovo's Independence Day, reacted from Pristina regarding the trial of former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army in The Hague, describing the prosecutors' request for sentences of up to 45 years in prison as "absurd".
Rama stated that he had found it difficult to prepare a speech in the face of such a situation, while noting the comparison with persons convicted of serious war crimes by international justice, such as Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić, sentenced to life imprisonment for war crimes and genocide.
According to Rama, the prosecution of the tribunal in The Hague is seeking to place four former KLA leaders on the same level as perpetrators of mass crimes, although, according to him, no activity comparable to terror against the civilian population, ethnic cleansing or massacres like that of Srebrenica has been proven.
"They did not arm themselves to build a policy of extermination, but against one. They did not arm themselves to impose their rule on a foreign territory, but to remove the rule of foreigners on their land," Rama said.
The head of the Albanian government emphasized that the Kosovo Parliament itself voted to create a court that on paper is a court of Kosovo and not a tribunal to judge the state of Kosovo as such.
Rama also mentioned the report by former Council of Europe rapporteur Dick Marty on allegations of organ trafficking, calling it “notorious” and saying that such allegations have not been proven in any way. According to him, this process has been pushed forward for years, including developments that, according to Rama, have influenced the political course of Kosovo.
He stated that former Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi had returned from a meeting in Washington to normalize relations with Serbia under the auspices of Donald Trump, adding that "from that moment on, the Kosovo president has been taken hostage."
In conclusion, Rama claimed that the current President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, had also been threatened because, according to him, she had not allowed a search of the office of the Presidency institution by specialized prosecutors.
