Kosovo’s parliament on Thursday adopted a resolution calling for a fair trial for the four ex- guerilla Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, leaders on trial in The Hague for war crimes.

Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi are accused of having individual and command responsibility for crimes committed against prisoners held at KLA detention facilities in Kosovo and neighbouring Albania, including 102 murders during the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

“[Parliament} requests the Specialist Chambers and the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office … to ensure the strict implementation of constitutional and international standards relating to a fair and impartial trial, while also respecting the principles of transparency, accountability and the cultivation of public confidence in justice,” the resolution says.

The initiative came from MPs from the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, the party led first by Thaci and then by Veseli for more than two decades until November 2020 when they were sent to The Hague awaiting trial.

Ninety MPs from the ruling Vetevendosje party, the PDK, and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, supported the document. MPs from the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, did not participate in the vote.

The seven-point document urges the Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecution to ensure “full implementation of constitutional and international rights related to the protection of basic rights of the defendants, including the obligations deriving from the European Court of Human Rights”.

Started in April 2023, the trial is in its final stages, with the defence giving its last challenging arguments to the prosecution, which has requested 45 years of imprisonment for each defendant.

Earlier on Thursday, Albania’s parliament also adopted a statement in support of Thaci, Veseli Krasniqi and Selimi, in a rare show of unity between the ruling Socialists and opposition Democrats.

Albania’s parliament said it “notes with concern that the Special Prosecution’s request risks creating a dangerous distortion of history, equating a people’s legitimate struggle for survival and freedom with the crimes of the Serbian regime of Milosevic, which committed ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity against the people of Kosovo”.

Established in 2015 by Kosovo’s parliament, the Hague-based court is part of Kosovo’s judicial system but located in The Hague and staffed by internationals, partly because of fears that witnesses could be intimidated after incidents in previous Kosovo war-related trials at the UN’s Yugoslav war crimes tribunal.

The Specialist Chambers were established under pressure from the country’s Western allies, who believed Kosovo’s justice system was not robust enough to try KLA-related cases and protect witnesses. Many Kosovo Albanians believe the court is ethnically biased and denigrates the KLA’s just war against Serbian repression.