Deadline extended for the appeal notices for the KLA four: Appeals Panel sets 27 November

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers announced that the Appeals Court Panel has partly approved the defence’s request for an extension of the deadline for filing the notices of appeal against the judgment against Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi, as Kosova Times reports.

According to the announcement, the Appeals Panel approved the same extension of the deadline also for the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office (SPO) and set 27 November 2026 as the date for the filing of the appeal notices by the defence teams and by the SPO.

In a second decision, the Appeals Panel approved the modalities for the participation of victims in the appeals process, deciding that a practice similar to the one applied during the first-instance trial will apply, with the necessary adaptations.

The decision follows the first-instance judgment delivered on 16 September 2026, by which the Specialist Chambers sentenced Hashim Thaçi and Jakup Krasniqi to 25 years of imprisonment each, Kadri Veseli to 18 years and Rexhep Selimi to 13 years for war crimes. The defence teams have announced they will appeal the judgment.

With today’s decision, the appeals process officially enters its procedural phase: the appeal notices, in which the parties will set out the grounds on which the judgment is contested, will be filed on 27 November 2026.