“I expect to be acquitted of every charge.”
Nearly six years have passed since the four defendants were arrested and the verdict was scheduled. Eliza Hoxha described the charges over that period as “untenable, falling one after another,” and said September 16 “must be the end of this dark saga.” She stressed that the platform does not want to prejudge the court’s decision.
“Without prejudging the judiciary’s decision and without interfering in the judicial process, we will keep making sure the voice of citizens is heard, for justice, dignity, memory and respect for our history.”
A Year of Mobilization Ahead of the Verdict
According to reporting by the KoSSev news portal, today’s campaign is the final stage of a mobilization effort that has been building for nearly a year. The first major show of support came in The Hague on September 14, 2025, the day before the start of Thaci’s defense case, when thousands of Albanians from Kosovo, the region and the diaspora gathered under the slogan “Justice for the KLA” and rejected what they called at the time the “criminalization of the KLA.” Over the following months, former American and British officials, among them James Rubin, Paul Williams and John Duncan, testified before the court, and the defense concluded its evidence in early December.
A new, stronger wave of mobilization followed in early February 2026, after prosecutors requested 45 years in prison for each defendant. Reaction in Pristina at the time was nearly unanimous, spanning the ruling party, the opposition and associations linked to the KLA, with messages describing the case as “a just struggle” and an attempt to “equate victim and aggressor.” When the verdict’s postponement was announced in May 2026, a new wave of criticism followed, targeting the work of the Specialist Chambers. Support spread beyond Kosovo in July, when hundreds of Albanians gathered in Zadar under the banner “Freedom for the Liberators.”
We previously reported on what Thaci expects from the trial’s outcome in “Thaci Expects Acquittal Ahead of September 16 Verdict in The Hague.” The date has since been confirmed, and the campaign launching today is the first visible sign that preparations in Pristina for that day are accelerating, a month before the verdict is actually handed down.