Skenderaj/Srbica

In Montenegro, heavy rain in the towns of Pljevlja, Mojkovac and Rozaje blocked roads due to rising water levels and landslides. The Interior Ministry said its Protection and Rescue Office was in constant communication with local authorities, adding that the army is on standby if the situation worsens.

For two decades, voters in the town of Skenderaj/Srbica in Kosovo's Drenica Valley have been pledging their support to the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK and its former leader Hashim Thaci, the wartime political chief of the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA who went on to dominate politics in the country in the years after the conflict.

A group of over 40 civil society organisations in Kosovo said in a joint statement on Thursday that Shkelzen Gashi has been "threatened and insulted in the worst way by the general public, but also by many personalities and politicians including President Hashim Thaci".

The lawyer for Sami Lushtaku, a former guerrilla commander who is now mayor of Skenderaj/Srbica, filed a complaint to Kosovo’s Supreme Court against his conviction for war crimes.

Sami Lushtaku, the mayor of Skenderaj/Srbica who was recently convicted of war crimes, his son and 22 other people, including senior justice ministry officials and prison guards, were charged on Thursday with various crimes which enabled Lushtaku to escape from custody on three separate occasions.

A defence lawyer for one of the so-called Drenica Group ex-guerrillas, who were sentenced to a total of 65 years in jail for war crimes, said on Tuesday that they will appeal against the convictions, which he called a "legal massacre".

Dutch ambassador Robert Bosch told newspaper Kosovo Sot on Thursday that Thaci's claim that the verdict convicting the ex-guerrillas was politically motivated was inappropriate.

"Officials should never comment on the decision of the court," said Bosch.