Thousands of people gathered in Pristina’s Skanderbeg Square for a seventh consecutive night on September 22 to protest against the verdicts handed down by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers against four former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leaders, Koha.net reported.

The protesters carried banners reading “Not in my name” and “Freedom has a name”, alongside Kosovo and KLA flags and flags of the United States.

The protest opened with the reading of the KLA soldiers’ oath by Kosovo-Albanian opera singer Rame Lahaj.

One of the organisers, Çlirim Haziri, said the demonstrations had entered their second week and that participants would continue until their demands were addressed.

Haziri said the protests were not organised in support of a political party but represented opposition to what protesters see as an attempt to tarnish the KLA’s war. He also referred to a draft law submitted to Kosovo’s Assembly proposing amendments to the Law on Specialist Chambers and called on state institutions to respond.

The organisers said the protests would continue and urged more citizens to participate in the coming days.

Demonstrations in support of the former KLA leaders have also been held in recent days in New York, Canada, Switzerland, Germany and Austria.

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers convicted former KLA leaders Hashim Thaçi and Jakup Krasniqi of war crimes and sentenced each to 25 years in prison. Kadri Veseli was sentenced to 18 years and Rexhep Selimi to 13 years, bringing the combined sentences to 81 years.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said during a September 22 meeting with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas that Kosovo would work to have the verdicts against the former KLA leaders corrected through the appeals process.

Kurti described the sentences as severe and unjust. He said the KLA had emerged in response to repression, killings, massacres, mass expulsions and ethnic cleansing by Serbia, and described its fight for freedom as just.