Hashim Thaci, former Prime Minister and President of Kosovo, and former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), has been sentenced in The Hague to a total of 25 years for war crimes.
Wearing a navy blue suit and a pink tie, Thaci listened calmly to the delivery of the verdict, smiling when presiding judge Charles Smith handed down the aggregate sentence.
According to the first-instance verdict, three other former KLA members, who had been on trial since 2023 for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 1998 and 1999 conflict in Kosovo before the Specialist Chambers in The Hague, were also sentenced to long prison terms.
All four were sentenced to a total of 81 years in prison.
“They are criminally responsible for the war crimes of detaining 385 people, cruel treatment of 49, torture of 303, and murder of 96. They significantly contributed to a joint criminal enterprise directed against those perceived as opponents of the political and military goals of the KLA, including Kosovo Albanians, other political and military forces, and individuals claimed to be connected with the authorities of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, as well as certain members of ethnic minorities such as Serbs and Roma,” the judgment stated.
Jakup Krasniqi, former KLA spokesperson and member of the political directorate, received a total sentence of 25 years in prison.
Kadri Veseli, head of KLA intelligence during the conflict and later head of Kosovo intelligence, was sentenced to 18 years.
Rexhep Selimi, who at the time covered by the indictment, served as head of the KLA directorate for operations and later as chief inspector, was sentenced to a total of 13 years.
All convicted individuals will have the time spent in detention in The Hague credited towards their sentences. All four, who were associates during and after the conflict, had previously pleaded not guilty, and the defence has the right to appeal. The prosecution proved that the KLA committed war crimes, but not crimes against humanity, said the presiding judge of the trial panel. The prosecution had previously requested 45 years in prison for all four men.
While the verdict was being read, KLA supporters in Pristina and outside the court in The Hague followed the trial on large screens, displaying KLA insignia.
According to the indictment, the crimes took place in more than 100 locations in Kosovo and northern Albania, where civilians were detained, abused, or killed.
Six counts of the indictment related to crimes against humanity – persecution, imprisonment, torture, murder, and enforced disappearance – while another four related to war crimes – unlawful arrest, cruel treatment, torture, and murder.
At least 440 people, including Serbs, Albanians, Roma, Bosniaks, and Montenegrins, were unlawfully detained, according to prosecution submissions.
Thaci was among the founders of the KLA, a militant ethnic Albanian guerrilla group that clashed with Serbian security forces in the late 1990s. More than 10,000 people died in the 1998 and 1999 conflicts, and 1,620 people remain unaccounted for in Kosovo, according to official data from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Nine years after the end of the conflict and the withdrawal of Serbian security forces in 1999, Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, which Serbia does not recognise.
Dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina has been deadlocked for years despite the signing of several agreements under the auspices of the European Union (EU).
A few days earlier, another proceeding against Thaci concluded concerning the exposure of protected witnesses as well as obstruction and contempt of court, in which prosecutors sought six years in prison, but a verdict has not yet been handed down.
What does the first-instance verdict state?
The court found that the defendants carried out attacks through arrest, murder, unlawful detention, physical and psychological abuse, intimidation, and harassment.
The victims were mostly innocent civilians, often falsely and arbitrarily labelled as collaborators of the enemy or spies. During their testimony, many victims spoke about the lasting psychological and physical consequences they endured.
However, the four KLA members were acquitted of crimes against humanity because the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office failed to prove that there was a widespread or systematic attack against civilians.
This trial is not about the legitimacy of the KLA and its goal, which is the independence of Kosovo, but rather about specific criminal acts committed by individual members of the group to achieve that goal, pointed out presiding judge Smith. The trial did not deal with crimes committed by Serbian forces and paramilitary formations against Kosovo Albanians, which undoubtedly took place.
The catalyst for the establishment of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers was a report by the then representative of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Dick Marty, concerning the alleged involvement of KLA members in abductions, murders, and organ trafficking.
The indictment was filed in 2020, and the trial began three years later.
Tears, disappointment, and initial reactions
Supporters of the accused spent hours waiting and following the live broadcast of the verdict in front of a video screen in the centre of Pristina.
A large number of Albanians carrying KLA flags had also gathered outside the court building in The Hague. Disappointment and disapproval soon followed, and many among the gathered crowd wept. “We expect the appeal process. We are convinced of his innocence,” said Gani Thaci, brother of the former prime minister and president.
Edi Rama, Prime Minister of Albania, also reacted on social media.
“Marre,” meaning “Shame,” he wrote on Facebook alongside an illustration of barbed wire.
Glauk Konjufca, Kosovo’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, stated that it was “unbelievable that a court speaking in the name of Kosovo would make such a decision.”
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office are a unique institutional model – they are part of the Kosovo judicial system, yet based in the Netherlands.
The verdict was handed down “in the name of the people of Kosovo,” the judge said. The verdict was also criticised by Ramush Haradinaj, leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo and a former KLA commander, who called it unjust and unacceptable, urging for a calming of tensions and the continuation of the legal battle before the second-instance panel.
“First-instance verdicts for Banjska, which cost four lives: life sentences for two of the accused, and 30 years in prison for the third. That speaks volumes about the prosecution in Kosovo and the treatment of defendants of Serbian nationality,” wrote Rada Trajković, a former Kosovo politician, on the social network X.
Three out of 45 accused individuals were convicted for the armed attack in Banjska in September 2024, when Kosovo police officer Afrim Bunjaku was killed, followed by the deaths of Stefan Nedeljković, Igor Milenković, and Bojan Mijailović.
Before delivering the verdict, presiding judge Charles Smith reflected on the period covered by the indictment.
More than 156 victims testified, but the trial was also marked by continuous witness intimidation, which caused some to retract their statements out of fear for themselves and their families, Smith pointed out. Some testified despite the intimidation, while the identities of certain individuals and their family members were protected due to the exposed danger, he added.
Thaci, who served twice as Prime Minister of Kosovo and resigned as President upon the filing of the indictment in 2020, sat calmly in the dock listening to the verdict. He is the founder of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and led it for years; the party is currently in opposition.
(BBC Serbia, N1, 16.09.2026)
https://www.bbc.com/serbian/articles/c52e01133xm7o/lat
https://n1info.rs/vesti/blog-presuda-hasim-taci-kadri-veselji-hag-ovk-uck-16092026/
Photo credits: Armend NIMANI / AFP / Profimedia and Reuters