War crimes

Ex-Kosovo President Thaçi Gets 25 Years for War Crimes

Is this a political show trial against Kosovo's liberators or long-overdue justice for KLA victims?

Published SEP 16

Ex-Kosovo President Thaçi Gets 25 Years for War Crimes

Story

Above: Kosovo Albanians holding an image of Hashim Thaçi take part in the "March for Freedom" in Pristina on Sept. 12. Image credit: Armend Nimani/AFP/Getty Images

The Facts

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague convicted former Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi of war crimes linked to the conflict over his country's independence from Serbia on Wednesday and sentenced him to 25 years in prison for crimes including murder, torture and arbitrary detention.
Reuters
Anadolu Agency
Thaçi was tried alongside three other former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) figures. Jakup Krasniqi received 25 years, Kadri Veseli 18 years and Rexhep Selimi 13 years, as credit was given for time already spent in detention.
Kosovo Online
Kosovo Specialist Chambers
Fox 59
The trial panel found the four men criminally responsible for the arbitrary detention of 385 people, the torture of 303, the cruel treatment of 49 and the murder of 96, saying they "contributed significantly" to a common criminal purpose. Thaçi rejected all the charges against him.
EuroNews
Anadolu Agency
Prosecutors had sought 45-year sentences for each defendant. The judges acquitted all four on six counts of crimes against humanity, finding that prosecutors did not prove a widespread or systematic attack on civilians.
Reuters
Kosovo Specialist Chambers
TASS
Presiding Judge Charles Smith said the case did not concern the KLA's legitimacy or its goal of independence, but the criminal means some members used. The panel also noted a persistent "climate of witness intimidation."
EuroNews
Kosovo Specialist Chambers
Police in The Hague used pepper spray and a water cannon after unrest at the Malieveld following the ruling, while the European Union urged all parties in Kosovo and the region to exercise restraint.
Kosovo Online
NL Times
Channel8 English on X

Sources Split

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The Spin

Narrative A

Putting Kosovo's liberators in the dock while Serbia's state-sponsored atrocities go unanswered is a travesty. The KLA defended a people facing ethnic cleansing and mass displacement, and no court should be allowed to rewrite that history by casting the defenders as aggressors. A 25-year sentence handed down in a predetermined proceeding deserves to be appealed and overturned.

aktualitet.al

John Goci on X

Narrative B

Thousands of victims waited more than two decades for accountability, and these convictions finally deliver it. Arbitrary detention, torture and murder are crimes no matter who orders them, and senior officials must never be treated as being above the law. Honoring a cause does not erase the suffering of the people who were brutalized in its name.

Amnesty International