A Hague court convicts Kosovo’s former President Thaci of war crimes and sentences him to
THE HAGUE: Kosovo’s former President Hashim Thaci was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Wednesday after being found guilty of 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.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 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.”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 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.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.”
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.