Macedonia Shootout Verdicts Trigger Protests in Kosovo

Dozens of protesters gathered in Peja, Kosovo, on Thursday to condemn the heavy jail terms bestowed on 37 Albanians accused of taking part in a bloody two-day gun battle with police in the northern Macedonian town of Kumanovo in May 2o15.

Kosovo's Prime Minister, Ramush Haradinaj, said he had recalled Kosovo's ambassador to Macedonia for consutations.

Participants at the rally in Peja burned the Macedonian flag as a sign of anger.

"We are very concerned with this injustice that once again was done to Albanians," said Melisa Zekaj, the daughter of Valdet Zekaj, to whom the court in Skopje gave life sentence.

Many of the 37 defendants are originally from Kosovo and are former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA.

Zekaj said she was disappointed especially with the Kosovo government, led by Haradinaj, for not protecting its own citizens.

Ahead of the PM's statement, she said: "Citizens voted for them in he hope that they would do something for the fighters, for all those who fought for this country and its ideals, but the Prime Minister has not even made one statement on the Kumanovo case."

The Skopje Criminal Court on Thursday gave life sentences to seven of the 37 ethnic Albanian defendants accused of involvement in the shootout with police in Kumanovo in 2015. Most of the rest got long jail terms.

The defendants were found guilty of terrorism, either for participation in or assistance to a two-day shootout that left 18 people dead, including eight police.

Besides the protest in Peja, in Gjilan a group of football fans also protested against the sentences.

Kosovo's largest opposition party, Vetevendosje, slated the decision of the Skopje Court as "politically motivated and inhumane", and said it...