Rexhep Meidani’s reaction after The Hague ruling against four former KLA leaders has brought a strong political tone against the way justice for Kosovo is being presented. The former president not only opposes the sentences, but openly questions the moral authority and representational legitimacy of this court.
Meidani questions the court’s representation
Meidani reacted after The Hague court sentenced four KLA leaders to a total of 81 years in prison: Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi. At the center of his reaction is the claim that the judicial panel speaks in the name of the people of Kosovo while, according to him, it neither has a composition that represents them nor any real connection with the country on whose affairs it is ruling.
He says that none of the judges on that panel comes from Kosovo and understands it, while the hearing was not held on its territory. For Meidani, the essential question is not only the length of the sentence, but the legitimacy of a court which, in his version, claims to represent a people who are protesting outside it and have no voice within it.
The context of the war at the center of the reaction
The former president insists that the debate cannot be separated from the historical context of the war in Kosovo. According to him, Kosovo and its Albanians were victims of Serbian state violence and cannot be placed on the same plane as the aggressor.
In his reaction, Meidani stresses that even in cases where individual responsibility is discussed, it cannot relativize the historical fact of Serbian repression and the human price through which Kosovo’s freedom and independence were achieved. This is the political core of his message: the trial of individuals should not distort the reading of the war.
Political and moral defense of Thaçi, Veseli, Krasniqi and Selimi
Meidani goes beyond procedural criticism of the court. He also defends the political and historical stature of the four convicted men, declaring that no court decision can take away the place they hold in Albanian national history.
In his assessment, Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi remain part of one of the brightest chapters of our national history. He recalls the war period and describes the four former KLA leaders as figures who took a historical burden onto their shoulders at a time when Kosovo’s fate was uncertain.
Call for legal challenge and a role for Kosovo’s Assembly
At the end of his reaction, Meidani calls for the sentences to be challenged to the highest instance by every legal means available. He describes the process as still open, underlining that this is a first-instance judgment.
He also calls on the Assembly of Kosovo to take a position on this court. According to Meidani, the legislative institution in Pristina has the obligation to decide whether such a court, in its current form, deserves to continue speaking in the name of the people of Kosovo.
Meidani’s reaction shifts the debate beyond the courtroom and brings the issue back to the clash between international justice, political representation and the memory of the war in Kosovo.
Precisely where international institutions seek legal authority, opponents of this process are raising the question that remains the most sensitive: can a court have legitimacy when part of Kosovo’s society does not recognize it as its own?