Europe · 16 September, 2026 · 2 min read
Kosovo Specialist Chambers Sentence Hashim Thaci to 25 Years for War Crimes
Hashim Thaci convicted of four war crimes and sentenced to 25 years in The Hague. Crimes committed during Kosovo's 1998-1999 war as top commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
37 outlets, one story, no spin found.
8 of 10 outlets skipped it: thaci faces a separate witness intimidation trial.
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Thaci’s 25-year conviction
The Kosovo war crimes tribunal sentenced former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, 58, to 25 years in prison for four counts of war crimes committed during Kosovo’s violent break from Serbia in the 1990s, including murder, torture and illegal detention.
“sentenced on Wednesday to 25 years in prison”
Al Jazeera reported that the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague said Thaci was guilty of the murder of 96 political opponents and perceived collaborators with Serbian security forces by the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
The BBC said Thaci was convicted after a three-year trial of crimes including murder, illegal arrests, torture and cruel treatment, and that a number of other allegations were not proven.
The verdict was read in The Hague by Presiding Judge Charles Smith, and Thaci stood in silence as the sentence was delivered, according to Al Jazeera’s account of the hearing.
Rallies, banners, and rebuttals
The trial remained contentious within Kosovo, where Al Jazeera said Thaci was revered by many Kosovan Albanians for his role in the 1998-99 independence war, and it described tens of thousands gathering in Pristina to call for acquittal before the verdict.
Al Jazeera quoted a banner reading, “In the name of the people, declare them innocent,” as portraits of the four former KLA fighters were plastered across the city with a digital clock counting down to the verdicts.
After the sentence, Kosovo’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Glauk Konjufca condemned the verdict as “terrible and harmful to Kosovo,” while Serbia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Ivica Dacic called the verdicts a “warning” to Pristina “that a fake state cannot be built on mass graves of murdered Serbs”.
The BBC said thousands of people gathered in Pristina to watch the verdict on large screens, and photographs and videos showed people in tears as they learned of the sentence.
What the verdict changes
Al Jazeera said the Kosovo Specialist Chambers convicted Thaci of murder, torture and illegal detention as top commander of the KLA, while also noting that the four men were acquitted on six charges of crimes against humanity because prosecutors failed to prove crimes were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack on civilians.
“The verdict stated that they would have the right to appeal”
The tribunal’s findings, as described by Al Jazeera, also included sentences for three other former KLA senior commanders: Jakup Krasniqi was sentenced to 25 years, Kadri Veseli was given 18 years, and Rexhep Selimi was sentenced to 13 years, with the verdict stating they would have the right to appeal.
Al Jazeera reported that the verdict came as Kosovo was facing “political deadlock,” with repeated elections blocked and failures to form a government, and it quoted Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego saying the verdict “cuts right to the bone” for many Kosovar Albanians.
In The Hague, the BBC said Thaci was sentenced at a hearing on Wednesday, and it described him as regarded as a hero in Kosovo, while also stating that he resigned as president in 2020 to face the charges.