A Kosovo Specialist Chambers panel has found former President Hashim Thaci guilty on four war-crimes counts tied to his time commanding the Kosovo Liberation Army during the 1998-99 fight for independence from Serbia. The court imposed a 25-year prison term, with both the defense and prosecution free to appeal.
Judges determined that under Thaci’s command, KLA forces killed 96 people viewed as political rivals or Serbian collaborators, while also holding hundreds of people in unlawful detention and subjecting many to torture and mistreatment.
Three co-defendants who also held senior KLA roles received separate sentences: Jakup Krasniqi matched Thaci’s 25 years, Kadri Veseli was given 18, and Rexhep Selimi received 13 — the latter two terms adjusted for time already served. All four had maintained their innocence throughout the proceedings, and prosecutors had originally pushed for terms as steep as 45 years.
Thaci gave up the presidency almost six years ago specifically to face this prosecution, a dramatic reversal for someone who had once been welcomed by Western governments and included in the 1999 peace negotiations in France as Kosovo moved toward independence. He showed no visible reaction as the sentence was read.
Reaction in Kosovo has been sharply divided, since many view Thaci and his co-defendants as champions of the country’s independence movement rather than criminals. Crowds that had rallied in Pristina ahead of the ruling watched the announcement on a large public screen, with some responding with shouts of “UÇK” — the Albanian abbreviation for the KLA — and one bystander calling the decision a grave injustice against the defendants.
