After the murder of a woman in Kosovo at the weekend, protesters took to the streets of Prishtina to demand accountability, high-level resignations and an end to gender-based violence.
Hundreds of protesters rallied on Wednesday in Kosovo’s capital Prishtina to demand institutional accountability, resignations and urgent measures against femicide and gender-based violence.
The eruption of anger came after a woman, Arlinda Zekaj, was murdered on Sunday evening in Peja/Pec after the police accompanied her home from the police station where she had reported domestic abuse by her husband.
Protest against femicide in Prishtina, October 28, 2026. Photo: BIRN
“The state’s hands are bloody, women’s murders are forewarned, how many more Arlindas,” protesters chanted as they marched from Prishtina’s main square to the Ministry of Justice and then on a circuit of a number of other government buildings.
Arlinda Zekaj was murdered on Sunday evening in the village of Vitomirica, near Peja/Pec, shortly after returning home from the police station. Three days earlier, she had asked the local prosecution to intervene to protect her against violent attack.
Zekaj’s brother-in-law Albert Sylaj, was arrested on Tuesday, two days after the murder on suspicion of involvement.
At Wednesday’s protest, activists, civil society groups and members of the public demanded the resignation of Justice Minister Donika Gervalla, Internal Affairs Minister Xhelal Svecla and Peja/Pec mayor Gazmend Muhaxheri.
Protest against femicide in Prishtina, October 28, 2026. Photo: BIRN
They also demanded the dismissal and prosecution of various justice system employees in Peja/Pec – chief prosecutor Lumturije Vucetaj; prosecutor Suada Rama Hamza; president of the basic court Shemsedin Haxhiaj; acting director of the welfare centre Shpresa Lukaj; and judge Migjen Kastrati, who had ruled that Zekaj and her ex-husband Jeton Sylaj could continue living in the same household if they maintained a distance of two metres from each other.
The protesters further demanded the provision of social housing for survivors of gender-based violence, the vetting of the justice system, the legalisation of self-defence for women, and for femicide be treated as a national emergency.
Jeton Sylaj was remanded in custody for 30 days by a court on Tuesday on suspicion of contempt of court. He also faces a domestic abuse indictment for threatening the now-deceased Arlinda Zekaj.
Photo: BIRN
“I feel regret for what happened, I tried to prevent it,” Sylaj told the court, while arguing against the detention. Sylaj was detained on Sunday evening after Zekaj made a call to the police around two hours before she was murdered.
During a government meeting on Wednesday, Prime Minister Albin Kurti blamed the judiciary, saying that in Kosovo “unfortunately, justice does not protect the weak. On the contrary, it has often sided with the strong… A murder preceded by such warnings – which went unheeded – could not, in fact, have ended any other way. And this makes the situation even more inexcusable.”
A statement by Justice Minister Gervalla on Monday during an extraordinary parliamentary session about the murder has caused outrage and prompted the demands for resignations and dismissals. “Unfortunately, Arlinda did not turn to the government” for help, Gervalla said in parliament, adding that perhaps there would have been greater intervention had she done so.
Photo: BIRN
Zekaj is the seventh woman to have been murdered by a family member in 2026 in Kosovo.
On October 9, Nafije Bogujevci and her brother Egzon Bogujevci were shot dead. Nafije Bogujevci ’s husband later turned himself in to the police in connection to the crime.
There was also a protest march in August in Prishtina to demand justice for the victims of femicide and to call on authorities to treat gender-based violence in Kosovo as a national emergency. In August, two women were allegedly killed by their husbands within days. The first victim was 25 years old and pregnant, the second aged 80. The first was shot, the second beaten to death.