A statement by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has raised new suspicions about how the case against the former KLA leaders has been handled. Hashim Thaçi’s lawyer, Luka Misetić, is publicly raising the question of whether the outcome of the verdict was known in political circles days before it was announced.
What Thaçi’s lawyer claims
Misetić drew attention to a video in which Vučić says that during a meeting with a “European and world leader” he was informed that Hashim Thaçi would receive “a very heavy sentence.”
According to the lawyer, the person in question is French President Emmanuel Macron. It is precisely here that he raises two essential questions: how the decision of the Special Court could have been known in advance, and why this matter would be discussed between the head of France and the president of Serbia.
The Paris meeting and the timeline raising questions
According to the statement made public by Misetić himself, Vučić met Macron on September 10 in Paris. The lawyer claims that, if Vučić’s version is accurate, then information about Thaçi’s sentence was circulating nearly a week before the verdict was announced.
This has added to suspicions of a possible leak of information surrounding a process that, in the official version, is supposed to be independent of political and diplomatic influence. So far, there has been no public clarification for this discrepancy.
Reactions come amid protests in Kosovo
The lawyer’s comments come at a tense moment in Kosovo, where protests continue against the judgment that sentenced Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi to a total of 81 years in prison.
The court’s decision holds the former KLA leaders responsible for war crimes, while opponents of the judgment also view the case through the prism of a broader political and historical clash over the war in Kosovo.
Brussels’ position on the court in The Hague
In this climate of reactions, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Pristina that the independence of the court in The Hague must be guaranteed and that the judgment against the former KLA leaders must be fully respected.
She also insisted that “no one and nothing” can rewrite Kosovo’s history. However, the questions raised by Thaçi’s defense are expected to further fuel debate over the boundary between independent justice and signals that may come from high-level international politics.
So far, there has been no public reaction clarifying whether Vučić’s statement was an accurate assertion, a political interpretation, or something more. Faced with such a sensitive process, the lack of explanations only deepens the shadows over a case awaiting real transparency.