Thaci War Crimes Verdict: Ex-Kosovo President Gets 25 Years

A verdict 27 years in the making

Hashim Thaçi stood in silence in a Hague courtroom on Wednesday, September 16, as a judge read out a 25-year prison sentence. The Kosovo Specialist Chambers, a tribunal based in The Hague and backed by the European Union, found the former president of Kosovo guilty of war crimes. Thaçi, 58, served as Kosovo's president from 2016 until he resigned in November 2020, after the tribunal indicted him. The Thaci War Crimes Verdict, delivered in Le Monde's coverage of the Hague ruling, makes him the most senior figure convicted by the Specialist Chambers.

The panel of international judges convicted Thaçi on four counts: murder, torture, cruel treatment, and arbitrary detention, crimes committed while he was a top commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the territory's 1998-1999 war for independence from Serbia. Presiding judge Charles Smith III told the court that Thaçi had "actively participated in and encouraged crimes, including by promoting individuals involved in crimes," and showed what the judge called a ruthless ability to remove political obstacles to his leadership.

According to the tribunal's findings, the defendants bore criminal responsibility for the arbitrary detention of 385 people at KLA detention sites, the torture of 303 people, the cruel treatment of 49 people, and the murder of 96 people between April 1998 and June 20, 1999. The victims included Kosovo Albanians the KLA saw as political opponents or collaborators with Serbian forces, as well as Serbs and Roma. Prosecutors had asked for sentences of up to 45 years. The judges acquitted all four men of the separate charges of crimes against humanity.

Three co-defendants sentenced, protests back home

Thaçi did not stand trial alone. Three former senior KLA figures faced the same judges and received long sentences of their own. Jakup Krasniqi, a former spokesman for the guerrilla force, also received 25 years in prison. Kadri Veseli, once the KLA's intelligence chief, was sentenced to 18 years, and Rexhep Selimi, the former operations chief, got 13 years. All four men denied the charges throughout the trial, and both sides retain the right to appeal.

The case has divided the Balkans. In Kosovo, the four men are widely regarded as heroes of the independence struggle, and the verdict landed hard. In the days before the ruling, thousands rallied in central Pristina in support of the defendants, waving Albanian flags, and posters of the four men went up across the capital beside a digital clock counting down to the verdict. The U.S. Embassy in Pristina issued a demonstration alert on September 12, warning of large protests and telling staff to avoid unnecessary travel near the demonstrations.

The reactions from political leaders have been sharp. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama described the verdict as a "disgrace." On September 18, the European Union called on all parties and actors in Kosovo and the region to show restraint, with a European Commission spokesperson adding that the chambers were "delivering justice by conducting fair, impartial and independent judicial proceedings, based on the principle of individual criminal responsibility."

Human rights groups welcomed the outcome. "This verdict sends an important message to victims and their families that even powerful leaders are not beyond the reach of justice," said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement on September 17. "The court's findings underscore that accountability for serious wartime crimes should apply to everyone, regardless of their position or affiliation."

Why this case matters beyond Kosovo

The Specialist Chambers were created specifically to handle allegations of crimes by KLA fighters, a reminder that post-war justice in the Balkans was long seen as one-sided. The court's own presiding judge made a point of saying the case was not about the legitimacy of the KLA or its fight for an independent Kosovo. In a post-hearing statement, prosecutor Kim West said that certain individuals exploited the circumstances of war to commit grave crimes, and that "it is to the credit of Kosovo that those individuals are now being held accountable."

Readers following the site's coverage of global human rights setbacks and UN warnings on Sudan's war will recognize the pattern. The trial unfolded against a broader crisis for international justice. The verdict arrived the same week that 38 civil society groups filed a joint brief in a U.S. federal court challenging the Trump administration's sanctions against International Criminal Court prosecutors, judges, and staff, a campaign that Amnesty International says is chilling civil society engagement with the court. As reported by Human Rights Watch, the Kosovo convictions show that domestic and hybrid courts can still deliver accountability even as the world's flagship institutions come under attack.

For the victims named in the judgment, the sentence puts nearly three decades of waiting to an end. Whether the verdict helps Kosovo reckon with crimes committed in its own name, or just deepens the divide over them, is now the next question.