Kosovo's former president jailed for 25 years over war crimes

A European Union-backed court on Wednesday convicted former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci of four cunts of war crimes committed during his country’s war for independence from Serbia and sentenced him to 25 years in prison. Thaci, who is 58, resigned from office nearly six years ago to face the charges. He was convicted by a panel of judges at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers of murder, torture, cruel treatment and arbitrary detention. He can appeal.
Thaci, 58, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes committed as top commander of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the territory’s violent break from Serbia in the 1990s. The tribunal said he was guilty of the murder of 96 political opponents and perceived collaborators with Serbian security forces by Kosovo Liberation Army forces during the conflict. He was also convicted for the arbitrary illegal detention of 385 people, torture of 303 people and cruel treatment of around 50. The court said Thaci had “actively participated in and encouraged crimes”. Thaci, who stood in silence as Presiding Judge Charles Smith read out the conviction and the sentence, had denied all charges.
The ruling was closely watched in Kosovo and Serbia, where the legacy of the 1998-99 conflict and Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence remain a source of tension between ethnic Kosovo Albanians and Serbs. Thaci remains a revered figure for many Kosovo Albanians, while the tribunal itself is deeply unpopular in Kosovo.
The judgment was a crushing blow for a man once embraced by Western leaders, who had invited him to the 1999 peace talks in France, and who was seen as a leader who could guide the country toward independence. In Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, thousands of people watched the reading of the verdict live on a huge screen and were stunned at the sentence. Some started shouting “UCK,” the Albanian-language acronym for the Kosovo Liberation Army that Thaci once led before entering politic.