Kosovo's former president Hashim Thaci has been jailed for 25 years after being found criminally responsible for war crimes following a trial in The Hague.
Thaci, 58, was convicted by a panel of judges of murder, torture, cruel treatment and arbitrary detention, 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.
Thaci was also convicted for the arbitrary illegal detention of 385 people, the torture of 303 people, and the cruel treatment of about 50.
Prosecutors at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague had asked for a maximum 45-year prison sentence for Thaci and the other defendants, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi.
Hashim Thaçi, the former president of unrecognized Kosovo, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for war crimes.
ReplyDeleteA special court in The Hague found him guilty of murder, torture, and unlawful arrests. Thaçi was acquitted of charges regarding crimes against humanity.
On November 5, 2020, Hashim Thaçi resigned and surrendered to the court following the confirmation of an indictment for war crimes committed in Kosovo between 1998 and 1999.