Berisha-KLA-Strasbourgh – Albanian Telegraphic Agency.

Berisha in Strasbourg at Kosovo session: War leaders sentenced to 84 years, appeals court should review cases objectively

Sonila Mehmeti — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 14:18:10 +0000

TIRANA, Sept 29 /ATA/ Democratic Party leader Sali Berisha delivered a speech on Monday at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, where he addressed political developments in Kosovo, legal proceedings against former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leaders, and Serbia’s stance towards the legacy of the wars in Kosovo and Bosnia.

Berisha said that “the repeated elections in Kosovo, in terms of compliance with international principles governing parliamentary elections, regardless of their motivation, were conducted in accordance with these principles.”

Berisha called for avoiding repeat elections in Kosovo and urged the Council of Europe and Venice Commission to help resolve the presidential election process, while also addressing the convictions of former KLA leaders in The Hague.

He said that tens of thousands of people had taken to the streets of Pristina in recent days following the unexpected convictions of former KLA leaders by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague. He stressed that no one opposed punishing crimes, but said that certain comparisons and the lack of clear evidence of specific crimes had sparked public uproar.

In his speech, he drew a comparison with the convictions of former Serbian military officials, citing Vladimir Lazarević and Dragoljub Ojdanić, who were convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

“For example, the UN tribunal in The Hague sentenced Pristina Corps commander Vladimir Lazarević and Yugoslav Army Chief of General Staff Dragoljub Ojdanić to 15 years in prison each for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during Operation Horseshoe in Pristina. By contrast, Kosovo’s political leaders were sentenced to a combined 84 years in prison, based on a chain of command that they never had in a structured form,” Berisha said.

According to Berisha, only the Albanian side of the conflict has been prosecuted in The Hague, and he called on the Court of Appeals to review the cases objectively.

“Recently, the convictions handed down by the Kosovo court in The Hague have, surprisingly, followed clear ethnic lines. Contrary to its statute, the court has prosecuted only the victim side and not the aggressor. Therefore, let us hope that the Court of Appeals will review their cases more objectively,” he said.

Berisha stressed that “the state funeral with full honours for the butcher of Bosnia, the mastermind of the largest genocide in Europe since the Second World War in Srebrenica, was a second execution, 31 years later, of 8,500 boys and men, solely because of their religious and ethnic identity.”

According to him, “this is a grave insult to all humanity, reflecting the stance of Belgrade and Aleksandar Vučić, who is seeking to win elections by invoking the spectre of Ratko Mladić.”

“I believe this institution should take clear action against these threats,” Berisha said.

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