Kosovo’s former president Hashim Thaci has been handed a 25-year prison sentence by a tribunal in The Hague for war crimes, prompting disbelief and fury among many Kosovars who still regard him as a symbol of the country’s fight for independence.
Judges convicted Thaci and three other former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commanders over illegal arrests, torture, murder and cruel treatment during the 1998-1999 war against Serbia.
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The court found that, as senior KLA leaders, the men bore responsibility for murders, unlawful detentions, torture and mistreatment carried out by the guerrilla group before, during and after the conflict.
Yet across Kosovo, many ethnic Albanians continue to celebrate Thaci and his co-defendants as heroes of the independence movement. Thousands gathered in the capital, Pristina, to watch the verdict on a giant public screen.
“This process was not about justice, but politics,” said Tahir Bytyqi, a pensioner.
Elsewhere in Pristina, a group of young men marched towards the headquarters of the European Union’s Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX), carrying KLA flags and chanting the name of the former guerrilla force.
Some protesters clashed with riot police and threw stones at the building.
In The Hague, demonstrators who had assembled near the court also briefly confronted police. Several climbed onto a police van as officers tried to keep the crowd away from the courthouse.
Police eventually used a water cannon to disperse the protesters.
Protesters outside the headquarters of the EU Rule of Law Mission (EULEX) in Pristina
‘Unacceptable injustice’
The case has remained fiercely divisive in Kosovo. Prime Minister Albin Kurti described the verdict as “a great and harmful punishment” and said it should be “corrected” through an appeal.
“These are unjust findings, but they are not final and will be subject to review on appeal,” Mr Kurti wrote in a Facebook post.
“The reason the KLA was born was not, and cannot, be punished or tarnished.”
Thaci was sentenced alongside former senior KLA figures Jakup Krasniqi, Rexhep Selimi and Kadri Veseli. Krasniqi received 25 years, Selimi 13 years and Veseli 18 years.
The tribunal said the four men had “contributed significantly” to a shared criminal purpose aimed at people considered opponents of the KLA’s political and military objectives.
They were all acquitted of crimes against humanity charges, and each has the right to appeal the sentence.
Thaci resigned as president and surrendered to the tribunal after being indicted in 2020. He has remained in detention in The Hague ever since, with the time already served deducted from his sentence.
After the war, Thaci stayed at the centre of Kosovo’s political life and played a major role in the territory’s declaration of independence in 2008.
During the trial, images of the 58-year-old former prime minister were repeatedly displayed on enormous billboards around the country.
“We defended our homes, our country. This punishment is a shame for the international community,” said Skender Rexha, a high school teacher in Pristina.
Murders and beatings
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) was created under Kosovo law to prosecute alleged crimes committed by KLA members during the war. Although based in the Netherlands and staffed by international judges, it operates under a specifically Kosovo-based legal mandate.
The court has been deeply unpopular since its establishment. Its reliance on evidence provided by Belgrade — which continues to reject Kosovo’s independence from Serbia — has intensified accusations that the proceedings are politically motivated.
Its work, however, has strong backing from international allies, and the tribunal has already convicted several people over crimes committed during the conflict.
Reading the verdict, Judge Charles Smith said the “scale and nature” of the crimes committed by the defendants were “very serious”, including 96 murders.
“Murder victims in this case were shot to death, and others died because of the severe beatings,” Smith said.
He added that many victims’ bodies were discovered in conditions that constituted a further violation of their dignity.
The crimes took place between April 1998 and June 1999, during and immediately after the Kosovo war, a conflict that claimed about 13,000 lives.
