The Kosovo Specialist Chambers sentenced former president Hashim Thaci to 25 years for war crimes. Deutsche Welle said the court tied him to 96 murders, 385 illegal detentions and torture of more than 300 people. Thaci denied the charges and was tried with three other former KLA leaders.
Al Jazeera reported that the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on Wednesday sentenced Hashim Thaci to 25 years for war crimes committed as a senior Kosovo Liberation Army commander in the 1990s conflict. The court held him responsible for the murder of 96 political opponents and perceived collaborators with Serbian security forces. Thaci denied all the charges. After the 2020 indictment he resigned as president and has been detained in The Hague since then.[1]
Deutsche Welle reported that the tribunal sentenced Thaci to 25 years for murder, torture and illegal detention. Besides the 96 murders it cited the illegal detention of 385 people and the torture of more than 300 people. It said he was tried with three other former KLA leaders. The defence had argued the KLA lacked a strict command structure.[2]
Al Jazeera said Thaci stood in silence as the sentence was read. Deutsche Welle said thousands of KLA supporters watched in Pristina and that Prime Minister Albin Kurti, ahead of the verdict, called the war a just war of liberation. Both accounts describe the same Hague judgment and the 25-year term. Thaci’s denial sits in the Al Jazeera report.[1], [2]
