Ex-Kosovo President Thaçi Sentenced To 25 Years For War Crimes

Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi has been sentenced to 25 years in prison by a special court in The Hague after being found criminally responsible for a series of war crimes, including the murder of 96 people.

Thaçi, 58, was convicted alongside three other senior Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) figures following a three-year trial at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers.

According to a statement issued by the court on Wednesday, the trial panel found all four defendants criminally responsible for the arbitrary detention of 385 individuals, cruel treatment of 49 people, torture of 303 individuals and the murder of 96 people.

Thaçi was also convicted of other serious offences, while the court found insufficient evidence to support some charges, including certain crimes against humanity.

The former president, who had previously maintained that he was “completely innocent”, showed no visible emotion as presiding judge Charles Smith delivered the verdict.

Prosecutors had requested a 45-year prison sentence for Thaçi over crimes committed during the late 1990s.

His co-defendants, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi, were sentenced to 18, 13 and 25 years in prison respectively.

The court stressed that its proceedings did not examine the political objectives or methods of the KLA but focused on “the individual criminal responsibility of the defendants” for the crimes before the court.

The verdicts are not final and may be challenged on appeal.

Nearly 300 witnesses gave evidence during the proceedings, while 155 victims participated in the trial.

Prosecutors alleged that Thaçi and his three co-defendants were part of the KLA leadership and were involved in crimes committed during the 1998-1999 Kosovo conflict.

The KLA fought for Kosovo’s independence from Serbia between 1998 and 1999. Kosovo eventually declared independence with NATO’s intervention, following a conflict in which Serbian security forces were accused of committing serious crimes against Kosovo’s predominantly Albanian population.

The crimes attributed to Serbian forces were investigated by the UN-established International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers were created separately in 2015 following international pressure. Although they form part of Kosovo’s judicial system, the court operates with international judges and prosecutors and is based in The Hague for security reasons.

Thaçi later became a prominent political figure in Kosovo, serving as prime minister, foreign minister and president between 2008 and 2020. He resigned as president to face the proceedings in The Hague.

All four defendants had held senior positions within the KLA and later occupied influential political positions following the war.

For years after the conflict, Western politicians regarded Thaçi as a key negotiating partner in diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving the dispute between Kosovo and Serbia.

The Wednesday verdict triggered strong reactions in Kosovo, with Foreign Minister Glauk Konjufca describing it as “a sad, unjust, and undeserved decision.”

Speaking to journalists after leaving the courtroom in The Hague, Konjufca called it a “devastating verdict for Kosovo and for our war of liberation.”

Kosovo’s opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), which Thaçi founded after the war in 1999 and led for 17 years, also condemned the judgment as a “great injustice.”

The party said the allegations and evidence presented during the proceedings had been invented by Serbian propaganda “to criminalise the KLA’s just war,” in a statement published on Facebook.

Thousands of Kosovars watched the verdict on large public screens across the country before returning home, according to a DPA reporter in Priština.

Large demonstrations against the proceedings had taken place the previous Saturday, drawing tens of thousands of people.

In The Hague, several hundred Kosovars also protested against the trial and Wednesday’s verdicts, according to Dutch news agency ANP. Police reportedly used tear gas to disperse protesters after security forces were pelted with stones.