Ramush Haradinaj

Ahead of the expected resumption of the stalled dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, from which Kosovo declared independence in 2008, Kosovo leader Albin Kurti is coming under domestic pressure to get the United States involved in the European Union-facilitated process.

Pjeter Shala, who was a Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA fighter during the 1998-99 conflict with Serbian forces, pleaded not guilty to war crimes at a pre-trial initial appearance at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on Monday.

"I understood [the charges] and I find the accusations ridiculous," Shala told the judge.

The COVID-19 pandemic saw an increase in state control over the judiciary and media and further endangered minorities that already suffer from discrimination in Central and Southeast Europe, rights watchdog Amnesty International said in its annual report published on Monday.

The Pristina Basic Court ordered 30 days' detention of two suspects arrested on March 9 on vote-rigging and bribery suspicions, Mirlinda Gashi, the court's spokesperson, confirmed on Friday.

Kosovo's Foreign Minister Meliza Haradinaj-Stublla in Budapest in October 2020. EPA-EFE/LAJOS SOOS.

Haradinaj-Stublla quit after allegations of vote-rigging were reported on Sunday by the Insajderi website, which claimed that her husband, Dardan Stublla, bribed election commissioners to help her win a seat at the Kosovo Assembly at parliamentary elections last month.

Kosovo's Special Prosecution has confirmed to BIRN that an indictment has been filed against three individuals in connection with the highly controversial deportation of six Turkish nationals to Turkey on March 29, 2018.

Lawyers for the leader and deputy leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army War Veterans' Organisation, Hysni Gucati and Nasim Haradinaj, accused the prosecution at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on Wednesday of having a "negligent and contemptuous attitude" that was making the defence's job harder .

The opposition Vetevendosje party was on course for a landslide victory in snap parliamentary elections in Kosovo on Sunday, on a day that its leader and prime ministerial candidate, Albin Kurti, described as a "bright day" when he cast his ballot at a Pristina polling centre in the morning.

The appeals chamber at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague ruled on Tuesday that the deputy leader of the KLA War Veterans' Organisation, Nasim Haradinaj, must remain in custody.

The appeals judges said in their decision that they were "satisfied that, at the time of the review decision, grounds for continued detention still exist".

The President of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj, stated that this unification is not connected with the agreement that should be reached with Serbia, but that it is an internal decision of Kosovo, reports Gazeta Express.