Former Kosovo president Hashim Thaci sentenced to 25 years for war crimes

THE HAGUE – Former Kosovo president Hashim Thaci has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after the Kosovo Specialist Chambers convicted him of four counts of war crimes committed during Kosovo’s 1998-99 conflict with Serbia.

The court found Thaci, 58, guilty of offences including murder, torture and illegal detention carried out while he was a senior commander of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Judges said the case involved the killing of 96 political opponents and people perceived as collaborators with Serbian security forces.

Thaci denied the charges and stood silently as the sentence was delivered. Three other former senior KLA commanders were also sentenced. Jakup Krasniqi received 25 years, Kadri Veseli 18 years and Rexhep Selimi 13 years, with time already spent in custody taken into account where applicable. The defendants have the right to appeal.

The four men were acquitted on six counts of crimes against humanity after judges found prosecutors had not established that the alleged crimes formed part of a widespread and systematic attack against civilians.

The ruling prompted a strong reaction in Kosovo, where many ethnic Albanians regard the KLA and Thaci as central figures in the struggle for independence. Thousands gathered in Pristina to watch the verdict on a large screen, and some supporters chanted in favour of the former guerrilla movement after the sentence was announced.

Kosovo Foreign Minister Glauk Konjufca criticised the judgment, while Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama also reacted negatively. Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Ivica Dacic, by contrast, said the convictions supported Serbia’s long-standing allegations concerning crimes committed by the KLA.

The KLA emerged in the mid-1990s and intensified its armed campaign in 1997 and 1998. Serbian police and military forces responded with major operations, and the conflict escalated into full-scale war in 1999. About 13,000 people are estimated to have died and hundreds of thousands were displaced.

Thaci was a leading figure in the KLA’s political and information structures during the war. He later became Kosovo’s prime minister and foreign minister before serving as president from 2016 until 2020. He resigned as president in November 2020 after being indicted and was transferred to detention in The Hague.

The verdict remains deeply contested in Kosovo. Supporters of the former KLA leaders argue that accountability for wartime abuses has been uneven, while the tribunal’s proceedings concern the specific crimes and defendants brought before it.

The judgment comes as Kosovo continues to face domestic political difficulties and pursues closer ties with the European Union.

Source: Al Jazeera. Read the source report.

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