Court convicts ex-Kosovo leader

THACI 25 YEARS: The lead judge said that the former president participated in and encouraged war crimes, but supporters called the ruling in The Hague ‘catastrophic’

• AP, THE HAGUE, Netherlands

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Former Kosovar president Hashim Thaci on Wednesday was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being found guilty of war crimes committed during the war for independence from Serbia in 1998 and 1999.

Thaci resigned from office nearly six years ago to face the charges at the EU-backed Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, Netherlands. He was convicted of four counts of war crimes, including murder, torture, cruel treatment and arbitrary detention.

He and the prosecutors, who had asked for a stricter sentence, can appeal.

People gesture while sitting in a car with an image depicting Kosovo Liberation Army commanders outside the EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo headquarters on Wednesday.

Photo: Reuters

The judgement 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 that Thaci 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.

Kosovar Minister of Foreign Affairs Glauk Konjufca condemned the verdicts as “a terrible judgement 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 said.

Later, masked protesters threw stones at the wall surrounding the compound of the EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo on the outskirts of Pristina, smashing several windows.

Smith said that Thaci “used his position, leadership, authority and standing” to encourage crimes and failed to investigate or punish abuse by UCK fighters.

However, he 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 judgement.

“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,” West said in a statement.

In Belgrade, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said “we have no reason to rejoice” and expressed concern that the verdict would not hold after appeals.

Vucic was critical that multiple other alleged crimes against ethnic Serbian civilians have not been taken into account, claiming anti-Serb bias.

“No responsibility has been established for the toughest crimes,” he said. “Serbs are always [war] criminals, and others are liberators and heroes.”

Thaci was on trial with three other former UCK leaders who fought Serb forces in the 1998-1999 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.