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 multiple war crimes committed during the Kosovo conflict.
Thaçi, 58, was convicted alongside three other senior figures of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) following a three-year trial at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers.
In its ruling on Wednesday, the court found the four defendants criminally responsible for the arbitrary detention of 385 people, cruel treatment of 49 people, torture of 303 individuals and the murder of 96 people.
Thaçi was also convicted of other serious offences, although the court said there was insufficient evidence to establish some of the charges, including certain allegations relating to crimes against humanity.
The former Kosovo president had consistently denied the allegations and previously maintained that he was “completely innocent”. He showed little visible reaction as presiding judge Charles Smith read the verdict.
Prosecutors had asked the court to impose a 45-year prison sentence on Thaçi over crimes allegedly committed during the late 1990s.
His three co-defendants, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi, were sentenced to 18, 13 and 25 years in prison respectively.
The court emphasised that the proceedings were not focused on assessing the political objectives or methods of the KLA. Instead, the judges said the case concerned “the individual criminal responsibility of the defendants” for the crimes presented before the court.
The verdicts are not yet final and can be challenged through the appeals process.
The trial involved extensive evidence, with nearly 300 witnesses appearing before the court and 155 victims participating in the proceedings.
Prosecutors alleged that Thaçi and his three co-defendants occupied senior positions within the KLA leadership and were connected to crimes committed during the 1998-1999 Kosovo conflict.
The KLA fought for Kosovo’s independence from Serbia during the conflict. Kosovo later declared independence, following NATO intervention after a war in which Serbian security forces were accused of committing serious crimes against the largely ethnic Albanian population.
Crimes attributed to Serbian forces during the conflict were investigated by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which was established by the United Nations.
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers were established separately in 2015 following international pressure to investigate alleged crimes linked to members of the KLA. Although the institution forms part of Kosovo’s judicial system, it operates with international judges and prosecutors and is headquartered in The Hague for security reasons.
Thaçi later transitioned from military and political leadership into mainstream politics, becoming one of Kosovo’s most prominent political figures. He served as prime minister, foreign minister and president, holding the presidency from 2016 until 2020.
He resigned as president in 2020 after being summoned to face the proceedings in The Hague.
The other defendants had also occupied senior positions within the KLA and later became influential political figures in Kosovo after the war.
For years following the conflict, Thaçi was regarded by Western governments as an important political and diplomatic interlocutor in efforts to resolve tensions between Kosovo and Serbia.
The verdict has generated strong reactions across Kosovo, with Foreign Minister Glauk Konjufca criticising the decision.
Konjufca described the judgment as “a sad, unjust, and undeserved decision.”
Speaking to journalists after leaving the courtroom in The Hague, he further described it as a “devastating verdict for Kosovo and for our war of liberation.”
The Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), which Thaçi founded in 1999 after the war and led for 17 years, also rejected the judgment.
The party described the verdict as a “great injustice” and alleged in a statement published on Facebook that the allegations and evidence presented during the proceedings had been fabricated as part of Serbian propaganda intended “to criminalise the KLA’s just war.”
The verdict also drew large crowds in Kosovo, where thousands of people reportedly watched proceedings on large public screens before returning home.
Demonstrations against the proceedings had already taken place the previous Saturday, attracting tens of thousands of people.
In The Hague, several hundred Kosovars also protested against the trial and Wednesday’s verdicts. Dutch news agency ANP reported that police used tear gas to disperse protesters after security forces were reportedly pelted with stones.
Source: DPA
