Prizren unanimously adopts declaration against the Hague verdict: “Not in my name”

Under the chairmanship of Assembly Chair Simir Krasniqi, and in the presence of Assembly members, monitors and media representatives, the Prizren Municipal Assembly held an extraordinary session today, as Klan Kosova reports. On the agenda was the Declaration of the Prizren Municipal Assembly regarding the verdict against the former leaders of the KLA.

The declaration was voted on and adopted unanimously by those present. It expresses deep disagreement with the first-instance judgment of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers of 16 September 2026 against Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi, while respecting the independence of the judiciary. The declaration reaffirms that the KLA’s war was a continuation of the struggle for freedom and liberation, born of the circumstances of repression, violence, killings and the expulsion of Kosovo’s Albanian population.

According to the declaration, for a criminal conviction of this weight, the personal responsibility of each accused must be proven with clear, concrete and convincing evidence, beyond any reasonable doubt. Criminal responsibility, it stresses, is individual and cannot be interpreted as the collective responsibility of the KLA.

The declaration expresses solidarity with Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi and with their families, while honouring the sacrifice of the fallen, the martyrs, the veterans and the war invalids. The Assembly calls on the citizens of Prizren and all of Kosovo to preserve calm, dignity and unity, and to express their positions peacefully and through institutions.

Given that the verdict was announced with the formula “In the name of the people of Kosovo”, the Assembly sends the message: “NOT IN MY NAME!” Prizren thus becomes the second municipality, after Deçan, to adopt such a declaration in this period — and it comes on the very day of the large “Not in my name” march being held today in Prishtina.