The Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) in The Hague has sentenced former Kosovar President Hashim Thaci to 25 years in prison. The conviction stems from war crimes committed during the territory’s violent struggle for independence from Serbia in the 1990s.
Thaci, 58, was found guilty of overseeing crimes including illegal detention, torture, and the murder of 96 political opponents and individuals perceived to be collaborating with Serbian security forces. These offenses occurred while he served as a top commander for the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
Alongside Thaci, three other former KLA commanders received significant sentences. Jakup Krasniqi was sentenced to 25 years, while Kadri Veseli and Rexhep Selimi were given 18 years and 13 years respectively, with both sentences accounting for time already served. The tribunal noted that the defendants have the right to appeal these decisions.
The court acquitted the four men on six counts of crimes against humanity. Judges determined that prosecutors failed to prove that the actions in question were part of a widespread or systematic attack on the civilian population.
The ruling has triggered significant backlash within Kosovo, where many view Thaci and the KLA as symbols of national liberation. Kosovo’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Glauk Konjufca, dismissed the verdict as “terrible and harmful to Kosovo,” while Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama posted a message online featuring an illustration of the court labeled with the word “Marre,” meaning disgrace.
In the capital, Pristina, thousands of citizens watched the proceedings on large screens, responding with outrage and shouts of support for the KLA. Conversely, Serbian officials welcomed the decision. Serbia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister, Ivica Dacic, labeled the judgment a long-overdue confirmation that the KLA functioned as a terrorist organization.
The conflict in the late 1990s left an estimated 13,000 people dead and caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands. Thaci, who served as prime minister and foreign minister before his presidency, resigned in November 2020 following his indictment and has been held in detention since.
Experts suggest the verdict creates further instability in a region already facing political deadlock and repeated failures to form a stable government. Jeta Xharra, director of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, argued that the tribunal appears focused on only one side of the conflict.
Xharra noted that while all victims deserve justice, the court’s narrow focus on KLA members creates a perception of injustice, particularly since many crimes allegedly committed by Serbian forces against civilians remain unpunished. She added that many Kosovars still carry the memory of being treated as second-class citizens before the war, and this ruling feels like a continuation of that trauma. The report also notes that he stood in silence as Presiding Judge Charles Smith read out the sentence, wearing a suit and tie. The report also notes that the trial has been controversial within Kosovo as many Kosovan Albanians see the KLA and Thaci as revered figures because of their role in the 1998-99 independence war. The report also notes that some started shouting slogans in support of the KLA and Thaci. The report also notes that serbia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Ivica Dacic called the verdicts a “warning” to Pristina “that a fake state cannot be built on mass graves of murdered Serbs”. The report also notes that and albeit belated, confirmation of what Serbia and the Serbian people have been saying loudly for more than a quarter of a century – that the so-called KLA was a criminal and terrorist organisation”, he said that the conviction represents a “clear. The report also notes that but its armed operations intensified in 1997 and 1998, the KLA first emerged in the mid 1990s. The report also notes that leading to a full-blown war in 1999, which resulted in the deaths of an estimated of 13,000 people and the displacement of hundreds of thousands, serbian forces responded with several large police and military operations. The report also notes that he became Kosovo’s prime minister and foreign minister and then served as president from 2016 to 2020, once the war ended.
