Former Kosovo “President” Hashim Thaci has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after being found guilty of war crimes, including killings, torture, in humane treatment and unlawful detention, by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague.

The 58-year-old Thaçi, who during the war was a senior figure and commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), was convicted of crimes committed during the 1998-1999 conflict with Serbian forces.

According to the verdict, he was found guilty of the killing of 96 people who were regarded as political opponents or collaborators with the Serbian security forces. The court also found him responsible for the arbitrary and unlawful detention of 385 people, the torture of 303 and the inhumane treatment of around 50 others.

The judges found that Thaçi “actively participated in and encouraged” the commission of the crimes.

The former Kosovo “president” remained standing and silent as the verdict and sentence were read out. He has denied all the charges against him from the outset.

The court found him guilty on four counts of war crimes, while he and his co-defendants were acquitted of crimes against humanity, as the judges found that the existence of a systematic attack against civilians had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt.

A verdict carrying particular weight for Kosovo and Serbia

The verdict had been eagerly awaited in both Kosovo and Serbia, where the legacy of the 1998-1999 war and Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence in 2008 continue to be a source of tension between Kosovo Albanians and Serbs.

Thaçi remains an emblematic figure of the “struggle for independence” for many Kosovo Albanians, while the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague itself is viewed with deep distrust in Kosovo. Following the announcement of the verdict, his supporters gathered in Pristina and outside the court in The Hague, expressing their opposition to the conviction.

Thaçi resigned as Kosovo’s president in 2020 in order to travel to The Hague and stand trial. Other former senior KLA figures also stood trial alongside him, including Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi.