Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after being found guilty of war crimes, including murder, torture, cruel treatment and arbitrary detention.
The 58-year-old was convicted over crimes committed while serving as a senior commander in the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during Kosovo’s conflict with Serbia in the late 1990s.
The tribunal found Thaçi criminally responsible for the killing of 96 political opponents and people suspected of collaborating with Serbian security forces.
Judges also convicted him over the arbitrary detention of 385 people, the torture of 303 and the cruel treatment of 49 others. The court said none of the victims were taking an active part in hostilities when the crimes occurred.
Judges found that Thaçi actively participated in and encouraged crimes committed as part of a joint criminal enterprise.
Presiding Judge Charles Smith said the plan involved establishing detention facilities in KLA-controlled areas, identifying people regarded as opponents, detaining them and, in some cases, killing them.
Victims were held in poor conditions, beaten, confined in small cells and denied adequate food and medical treatment, the court said.
Thaçi stood silently as the verdict and sentence were delivered. He denied all charges and is entitled to appeal.
The ruling was closely followed in both Kosovo and Serbia, where the legacy of the 1998–99 conflict and Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence continue to shape relations between ethnic Albanians and Serbs.
Thaçi remains a prominent and respected figure among many Kosovo Albanians, while the Hague-based tribunal has faced significant opposition in Kosovo.
In The Hague, brief clashes broke out between police and several hundred Thaçi supporters after demonstrators attempted to march towards the tribunal. They had gathered nearby to listen to a live audio broadcast of the judgement.
Hundreds of people also marched through Pristina following the verdict, while riot police were deployed across the Kosovo capital.
Former KLA fighter Raif Pllana described the verdict as “shameful” and warned that it would increase tensions.
Kosovo police said they had coordinated preparations with international peacekeeping forces in case the demonstrations turned violent. The U.S. advised its citizens to stay away from crowds.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama also criticised the ruling, posting an image on social media showing barbed wire across a map of Europe alongside the word “Unbelievable”.
Prosecutors sought a 45-year prison sentence for Thaçi and each of three other former senior KLA commanders.
However, the three-judge panel dismissed six counts of crimes against humanity, ruling that prosecutors had not proved that the offences were part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population.
Thaçi’s lawyers argued throughout the proceedings that the allegations were unfounded and amounted to an attempt to rewrite the history of the Kosovo conflict.
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers, based in The Hague, was established in 2015 under international pressure to investigate and prosecute alleged crimes committed by former KLA members during and after the war.
Judges said the trial had taken place against a backdrop of serious witness intimidation.
The court cited witnesses who withdrew previous statements, changed their accounts or gave evidence that judges concluded was false.
Concerns over pressure on witnesses have repeatedly surfaced in proceedings before the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, which was established outside Kosovo partly to provide greater protection for witnesses and the judicial process.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will make his debut at an expanded meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Turkmenistan...
Kosovo's parliament has elected economist and academic Justina Shiroka Pula as the country's new presid...
The U.S. military has tightened restrictions on its personnel in Okinawa following the arrest of a Marine on su...
Australian counterterrorism authorities are examining the links of the co-pilot accused of attacking the captain and attempting to take control of a flydubai flight bound for Israel. Authorities in New Zealand have also said they are investigating reports the suspect had spent time in that country.
Russia's health watchdog said on Tuesday that no cases of plague had been detected among anyone who had come into contact with a Siberian plague institute laboratory worker who died last week, and locals said their lives had barely been disrupted.
An Azerbaijani citizen died and another is missing after a cargo ship was attacked by a drone in the Black Sea, near the coast of Romania on Monday, 5 October, Baku's Foreign Ministry has said.
The German-Azerbaijani Connectivity Conference 2026 commenced on 6 October in Baku under the title “Mobilising Finance for Infrastructure, Transport, Logistics, Green Energy, and Digitalisation along the Middle Corridor.”
A large Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow and the surrounding region has killed two people, damaged homes and sparked a major fire at a key fuel facility, according to Russian officials and military bloggers.
Kosovo's parliament has elected economist and academic Justina Shiroka Pula as the country's new president, concluding a dramatic political process just hours before a constitutional deadline that threatened to dissolve the legislature.
The U.S. military has tightened restrictions on its personnel in Okinawa following the arrest of a Marine on suspicion of murder, a case that has reignited long-standing tensions over the American military presence on the southern Japanese island.
The arrest of former German intelligence chief August Hanning on espionage-related charges has drawn renewed attention to his past connections with Israeli security figures and a controversial cross-border child custody case generating significant public scrutiny.
Russia's health watchdog said on Tuesday that no cases of plague had been detected among anyone who had come into contact with a Siberian plague institute laboratory worker who died last week, and locals said their lives had barely been disrupted.
Space-agency chiefs and industry leaders met to discuss lunar exploration, satellite networks and orbital security on Tuesday as a major global space congress entered its second day.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment