THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Kosovo’s former President Hashim Thaci was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Wednesday after being found guilty of war crimes committed during the war for independence from Serbia in 1998-99.
Thaci resigned from office nearly six years ago to face the charges at the European Union-backed Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague. He was convicted of four counts of war crimes including murder, torture, cruel treatment and arbitrary detention.
Both he and the prosecutors, who had asked for a stricter sentence, can appeal.
The judgment sparked anger among Thaci’s supporters and was a crushing blow for a man who was once embraced by the West, invited to the 1999 peace talks in France and seen as the leader who could guide Kosovo to independence.
Presiding Judge Charles Smith said Thaci actively participated in and encouraged crimes, including by promoting individuals involved in crimes, and “showed a ruthless ability to remove and eliminate political impediments” to his and other commanders’ leadership.
Wearing a suit and tie, Thaci stood in silence as Smith read out the sentence.
Supporters criticize verdict
Kosovo Foreign Minister Glauk Konjufca condemned the verdicts as “a terrible judgment for Kosovo, for our people and for our liberation war.”
Hundreds of supporters waited at a park near the courthouse in The Hague, and some clashed briefly with Dutch riot police, who said on X that they detained two people.
In Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, thousands of people watched the hearing live on a huge screen and were stunned by the sentence. Some shouted “UCK,” the Albanian-language acronym for the Kosovo Liberation Army that Thaci once led before entering politics.
One supporter, Bekim Fetahu, said the verdict was “a catastrophic decision.”
“They (judges) have put the victims together with the aggressors,” Fetahu added.
Later, masked protesters threw stones at the wall surrounding the compound of the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, known as EULEX, on the outskirts of Pristina, smashing several windows.
Judge says trial was about personal responsibility, not KLA’s legitimacy
Smith, the presiding judge, said Thaci “used his position, leadership, authority and standing” to encourage crimes and failed to investigate or punish abuse by KLA fighters.
However, the American judge also stressed that the trial was “not about the legitimacy of the Kosovo Liberation Army” or its ultimate goal of securing independence for Kosovo, which at the time was a province in Serbia.
Specialist Prosecutor Kimberly West applauded the judgment. “Certain individuals exploited those war circumstances to commit grave crimes, and it is to the credit of Kosovo that those individuals are now being held accountable,” she said in a statement.
Thaci was on trial with three other former KLA leaders who fought Serb forces in the 1998-99 war and are widely regarded as national heroes in Kosovo. They pleaded not guilty to all charges against them.
The four were acquitted on six charges of crimes against humanity because the judges said the prosecutors failed to prove that crimes were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack on civilians.
They were found guilty of the war crimes of the arbitrary detention of 385 people, cruel treatment of 49, torture of 303 detainees and the murder of 96 people.
Thaci and the other defendants, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi, all maintained their innocence. Veseli was sentenced to 18 years, Selimi to 13 years and Krasniqi to 25 years in prison.
Veseli’s lawyer, Rodney Dixon, described the judgment as “not a good day for Kosovo. It’s not a good day for the rule of law or international law” and said he would “mount a robust appeal to continue the fight to show Mr. Veseli’s innocence and to bring him home to Kosovo.”
Thaci was defiant to the end of his trial
As his trial ended in February, Thaci told judges: “Throughout my life, I stood with the people of Kosovo, defending freedom, life and dignity. I was always guided by the Western ideals of democracy, equality and justice.”
But the court ruled that Thaci and his co-defendants targeted political opponents and civilians perceived as collaborators and traitors during their time in the KLA.
“In reality, there is no indication that the victims in this case were spies or collaborators,” Smith said. Just having “Serbian friends or jobs in Serbian companies was enough to treat them as collaborators” of the enemy.
When fighting broke out, Thaci was a student who returned from what he described as political exile in Switzerland to join Kosovo’s struggle for independence. He earned the nickname “the Snake” for his ability to evade Serb forces during the conflict.
Thaci rose to political power after the war but resigned as president to defend himself before the court in The Hague.
Esther Major, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for Europe, said the convictions “show that senior officials are not above the law.”
Most of the 13,000 people who died in the war in Kosovo were ethnic Albanians. A 78-day campaign of NATO airstrikes against Serbian forces ended the fighting. About 1 million ethnic Albanian Kosovars were driven from their homes.
In 2008, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia, a move that Belgrade refuses to recognize. Ties between Kosovo and Serbia remain tense, despite years of EU-mediated negotiations supported by the United States.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he plans to address the nation on Wednesday about the verdicts and the “situation in the region.”
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Associated Press reporters Zana Cimili in Pristina, Kosovo, Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia, and Molly Quell in The Hague contributed to this report.
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