Kosovo

Kosovo’s government on Wednesday approved the establishment of a working group to support the four former Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, leaders appealing against their war-crimes convictions, issued by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on September 16. … Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, former parliament speakers Kadri Veseli and Jakup Krasniqi, and former MP Rexhep Selimi were found guilty of arbitrary detention, cruel treatment, torture and murder during the Kosovo war from April 1998 to June 1999. 

The European Union has expressed "deep concern" over Kosovo's adoption of legislation that seeks to narrow the jurisdiction of a Hague-based war crimes court, saying the changes violate the country's international obligations toward the bloc. The amendments, approved by parliament on October 6, target the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, which last month convicted former President Hashim Thaci and three other former Kosovo Liberation Army leaders of war crimes.

Parliament elected Justina Shiroka Pula as Kosovo's new president early on October 7 following a last-minute political deal that secured lawmakers' approval of legal changes restricting the powers of a Hague-based war crimes court.

Kosovo's parliament approved on first reading a bill to sharply restrict the jurisdiction of the Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers on October 5, a day before the deadline to elect a new president or face fresh parliamentary elections. … The opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), which proposed the changes following the war crimes convictions last month of four former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leaders, has made its support for electing a president conditional on the bill's final passage.

MPs unite across party lines to back statement expressing unhappiness over Hague verdict convicting four former Kosovo Liberation Army leaders and urging state institutions to take action.

Kosovo’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday ordered MPs to elect a new head of state by October 6 to avoid new snap elections – which would be the fourth parliamentary polls in two years.

Hundreds of people protested in Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, on Friday, as discontent continued to simmer  over the guilty verdict handed down by Kosovo Specialist Chambers war crimes court in The Hague, convicting ex-President Hashim Thaci and three other former Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA leaders.

Six MPs from the opposition Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, will not follow the decision of the party’s leadership on a joint presidential candidate with the ruling Vetevendosje Movement, potentially jeopardising a possible end to Kosovo’s political crisis and prompting yet another election. 

Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci says he expects to be acquitted of all charges in the war crimes case against him and three other former Kosovo Liberation Army leaders when the verdict is announced on September 16.

As the country's political crisis continues, the three largest opposition parties in Kosovo skipped a meeting with the acting president, claiming she no longer holds the post legitimately.