The German Ambassador to Kosovo, Rainer Rudolph, has reacted after the announcement of the verdict of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, on September 16, 2026, in the court case against Hashim Thaçi and others.
In his statement, the ambassador emphasized that the case concerned allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity. According to him, as the presiding judge emphasized during the announcement of the verdict, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was not on trial, nor was the goal of an independent Kosovo.
Germany, the ambassador said, has supported the work of the Specialist Chambers from the beginning, convinced that they constitute an important contribution to the investigation and treatment of war crimes and crimes against humanity, to strengthening the rule of law and to Kosovo's rapprochement with the European Union.
He also praised the establishment of the Specialist Chambers and Kosovo's cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), emphasizing that in this way Kosovo has proven that it is fulfilling its responsibility as an independent and sovereign state, including confronting war crimes.
The German ambassador stressed that the verdict does not absolve Yugoslav actors from responsibility for the armed conflict and serious human rights violations against the people of Kosovo in the late 1990s. According to him, these events have been investigated earlier by international courts and were among the factors that led to the intervention of the international community.
Finally, Germany called on all parties to respect the verdict and the dignity of the victims.
