Recipient of the Sakharov Peace Prize and lifelong political activist Adem Demaci passed away today. The former political prisoner, who served 28 years in prison because of his dissidence in communist Yugoslavia, was 82 when he passed away.

The news of his death was announced by the deputy speaker of assembly Xhavit Haliti during an assembly session earlier today.

“His life and work will be upheld for as long as the Albanian nation and Albanians are alive. Glory to the life and work of Adem Demaci,’ Haliti said in the Assembly.

Kosovo MPs held a minute of silence in sign of respect.

Demaci, colloquially referred to as Kosovo’s Nelson Mandela, was a prominent political activist, writer, and human rights defender. Imprisoned for the first time in 1958, Demaci spent most of his adult life in and out of Yugoslav prisons as an Albanian nationalist dissident.

Between 1990 and 1995 Demaci headed the Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedom, KMDLNJ, an organization that became vital in monitoring and reporting human rights abuses in Kosovo during Milosevic’s regime.

In the late 1990s, Demaci headed the political branch of the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, and became a spokesperson for the guerrilla group during the Kosovo war.