• Lawyers for Kosovo's former President seek war crimes acquittal (Reuters)
• Selimi: Defense lawyer Misetic dismantling piece by piece prosecutors case (Express)
• CAA deeply concerned about judicial process against former KLA leaders (media)
• Rasic wants Serbian List to declare on integration of Serbian institutions (RFE)
• Arsic: Law on Foreigners worries teachers and students (Kosovo Online)
• Albania-Kosovo-Croatia meeting “confirms commitment to peace and security” (media)
• Police find hand grenades and uniforms in Zubin Potok (media)
• Kosovo needs to kickstart growth after political deadlock: economist (BIRN)
• EU continues investing in the renovation of public buildings in Kosovo (media)
• Pristina mayor meets new UN Development Coordinator (media)

Lawyers for Kosovo's former President Hashim Thaci seek war crimes acquittal (Reuters)

Lawyers for Kosovo's former President Hashim Thaci said on Wednesday that he should be acquitted of war crimes charges that allege he masterminded a violent political power grab by the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army in the late 1990s.

Thaci and three other former KLA commanders are charged with persecution, murder, torture and forced disappearances of people during and shortly after the 1998-99 uprising that eventually brought independence for the Albanian majority region from Serbia.

Lawyer Luka Misetic told judges at the special Kosovo war crimes court in The Hague that the prosecutors' allegations that Thaci and the three other commanders waged a violent campaign to get political control over all of Kosovo were an unfounded attempt to rewrite the country's history.

"There is ample reasonable doubt for you to enter a judgment of acquittal on all counts," Misetic said.

Thaci's defence team said there was no evidence to directly link Thaci to any of the alleged crimes and said there was not enough evidence to say Thaci controlled other KLA commanders.

"There are no orders in the record from Thaci to perpetrators of crimes. There are no reports from perpetrators of crimes to Thaci," Misetic said.

"There is no credible evidence that he was personally involved in the commission of war crimes," he added.

Thaci, 57, who served as prime minister, foreign minister and president of independent Kosovo between 2008 and 2020, and his co-accused deny all the charges.

On Monday, prosecutors sought a 45-year prison sentence for Thaci and his co-accused at the end of a nearly three-year trial. They say that in 1998 and 1999 more than 100 political opponents and perceived collaborators with Serbian security forces were killed and hundreds abused in and around 50 detention camps run by the KLA.

More than 13,000 people, the majority of them Kosovo Albanians, are believed to have died during the late 1990s insurgency, when Kosovo was still a province of Serbia under then-nationalist strongman President Slobodan Milosevic, whose troops violently cracked down on ethnic Albanians.

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers, staffed by international judges and lawyers, was set up in 2015 to handle war crimes cases under Kosovo law against ex-KLA guerrillas. The war crimes tribunal was set up outside the small Balkan country because of worries about witness intimidation as former KLA leaders are seen by many in Kosovo as national liberation heroes.

A ruling is expected within three months.

Selimi: Defense lawyer Misetic dismantling piece by piece prosecutors case (Express)

Kosovo’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Petrit Selimi, said in a post on X today that former Kosovo President’s defense lawyer Misetic is “dismantling piece by piece the prosecutors case” at the Specialist Chambers in the Hague. He also quotes Misetic as saying “prosecutors' description of evidence is like writing a film review for a film that they haven’t seen”.

CAA deeply concerned about judicial process against former KLA leaders (media)

Most news websites report that the Council of Albanian Ambassadors expresses its deep concern regarding the recent developments in the judicial process taking place in The Hague against the former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army. The Council said in a statement that “this process, in the form and narrative it is assuming, seriously risks distorting the historical and legal reality of the Kosova war. The liberation struggle of the people of Kosova was a lawful and necessary response to a systematic state-sponsored campaign of violence, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes carried out by the regime of Slobodan Milosevic, a regime that has already been morally and legally condemned by the international community”.

The CAA argued that “any attempt to equate the state aggressor with the victim who fought for survival and freedom constitutes an affront not only to the people of Kosova, but also to the very Western international intervention, which was undertaken precisely to halt war crimes and genocide in the heart of Europe. This distorted process poses an unacceptable risk of relativizing, and even amnestying, the historical and political responsibility of the Serbian state leadership for the crimes committed in Kosova. Such a development would represent a grave historical injustice and a dangerous precedent for international law”.

The CAA also reaffirmed its support for impartial international justice, but emphasizes that justice cannot and must not be detached from historical truth and the full context of events. “The liberation of Kosova was the legitimate act of an oppressed people, and the Kosovo Liberation Army remains a liberation force, not an object of political or legal revisionism,” the statement concludes.

Rasic’s party wants Serbian List to declare on integration of Serbian institutions (RFE)

The Party for Freedom, Justice and Survival led by Nenad Rasic has called on the Serbian List to declare and say what it has agreed on concretely with regards to the integration of Serbian-run education and healthcare institutions in Kosovo, and who and in whose name was engaged in the negotiations. “If there is no agreement, then it is extremely irresponsible, in fact even deceitful to present oneself as the political protector of the Serb people, and offer no concrete solution at the same time,” the party said in a statement, adding that the silence of the Serbian List “is not accidental”. “This behavior further the uncertainty, fear and the feeling of institutional abandonment,” the party said.

The news website notes that in the December 28 parliamentary elections, Rasic secured a seat in the Kosovo Assembly, while the Serbian List will have nine seats. Rasic was minister for Communities and Returns in the Kurti-led government – after the Serbian List withdrew from the institutions in 2022 – and is also expected to be part of the new government which will be led by the Vetevendosje Movement.

Arsic: Law on Foreigners worries teachers and students (Kosovo Online)

The Rector of the University of Pristina temporarily based in Mitrovica North, Nebojsa Arsic, emphasized that employees and students at the university are concerned about the announced implementation of the Law on Foreigners, since a large number of them do not possess Kosovo documents, and that the implementation of this law would pose a major problem for the entire Serbian community.

Rector Arsic told Kosovo Online that the University in Mitrovica North is one of the pillars of Serbian society in Kosovo, and that imposing a regime that would prevent the University from operating represents a serious problem.

“The announced implementation of the law, followed by its postponement for a few months, shows how serious this issue is, especially when it comes to the University. The University is one of the pillars of our society in Kosovo and Metohija and, together with the healthcare system, represents support for our people. Any imposition of a regime that would prevent our University from functioning represents a major problem, not only for the University as a teaching and research institution, but for our entire society. Of course, this has caused great concern among both students and professors for justified reasons, because the provisions of the law foresee restrictive measures regarding the stay of people they consider foreigners, and in such a situation a large number of employees and students at our University would find themselves affected,” Arsic said.

Read more at: https://shorturl.at/Z77B9

Albania-Kosovo-Croatia meeting “confirms commitment to peace and security” (media)

Commander of the Kosovo Security Force (KSF), Bashkim Jashari, took part in the trilateral meeting of the joint chiefs of staffs of Albania and Croatia. KSF said in a statement that the meeting marks an important step in strengthening regional cooperation and strategic coordination in the area of security and defense. “General Jashari, General Kingji and General Kundid had open and constructive discussions on current security challenges, furthering military cooperation, increased compatibility and advancing defense capacities in line with Euro-Atlantic standards,” the statement notes.

The meeting also confirmed the joint commitment for sustainable peace, stability and security in the region and highlighted the readiness to expand cooperation through joint training and drills, sharing of experiences and strategic coordination. “This trilateral initiative represents an example of strong partnership and a shared vision for a safe and more stable region,” the statement concludes.

Police find hand grenades and Kosovo police uniforms in Zubin Potok (media)

Kosovo Police found hand grenades and part of police uniforms in an abandoned house in Zubin Potok on Tuesday. The police unit for explosive ordinances went to the site and safely withdrew the explosive devices. Police said that no arrests were made and thanked the citizens for their continuous cooperation.

Kosovo needs to kickstart growth after political deadlock: economist (BIRN)

Visar Vokrri tells BIRN that after a ‘lost’ 2025 due to a lengthy political stalemate, Kosovo’s incoming government should prioritise domestic production and reduce the unhealthy dependence on imports.

Towards the end of December 2025, Kosovo Customs announced that its revenue had reached around 2 billion euros that year. In a country sustained by consumption, the size of that figure is more alarming than something to boast about. 

Kosovo remains highly dependent on imports, a dependency that is constantly increasing, as imports are rising faster than exports. According to the Kosovo Agency of Statistics, ASK, by October 2025, Kosovo had imported around 507.9 million euros more than it exported last year. This was a 34.3 per cent rise in the trade deficit compared to the same period in 2024.

“There is a degree of inertia, with little changing,” Visar Vokrri, Programme Director at the Pristina-based economic think-tank Riinvest Institute, told BIRN.

Read more at: https://shorturl.at/M1jv6

EU continues investing in the renovation of public buildings in Kosovo (media)

Several news websites cover a Facebook post by the European Union Office in Kosovo about its investment in the renovation of public buildings. “A total of 43 public buildings in Prizren, including 25 medical centres and 18 schools, will be renovated through the EU-funded WBIF - Western Balkans Investment Framework’s Regional Energy Efficiency Programme. This EUR 5 million investment, combining an EU grant with a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), will improve healthcare and learning conditions, increase energy efficiency, reduce air pollution, and generate long-term savings for public budgets. The works contracts were signed today by the Municipality of Prizren. In December 2025, similar EU-funded contracts covering 20 public buildings in Pristina were signed under the same programme. With EUR 3.7 billion invested since 1999, the EU is Kosovo’s strongest partner and largest provider of financial assistance,” the post notes.

Pristina mayor meets new UN Development Coordinator (media)

Pristina Mayor Perparim Rama said in a Facebook post today that he met with the new UN Development Coordinator in Kosovo, Stephen O’Malley, and discussed continuing the cooperation between the capital and the UN. “Cooperation with the United Nations remains crucial for the sustainable development of the capital. I welcomed the new UN Development Coordinator in Kosovo, Stephen O’Malley and Nuno Queiros, UNDP Resident Representative in Kosovo. We discussed continuing cooperation between the capital and the UNDP, with focus on development initiatives, sustainable projects and support for Pristina’s strategic priorities. We will continue to cooperate in the function of the capital’s development priorities,” Rama said.