- Verdict. The Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague convicted former Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi of four war-crimes counts—murder, torture, cruel treatment and arbitrary detention—on September 16.
- Scope. The court found Thaçi responsible for the deaths of 96 political opponents murdered by the Kosovo Liberation Army during the 1998–99 war of independence from Serbia.
- Stakes. The ruling rewrites the legacy of the man who helped build post-war Kosovo and arrives as Belgrade and Pristina remain locked in a fragile normalisation process.
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers, the EU-backed court sitting in The Hague, found Hashim Thaçi guilty of murdering 96 political opponents and perceived collaborators with Serbian security forces during the Kosovo Liberation Army’s campaign against Serbian rule. The sentence of 25 years was handed down on September 16 and covers four counts: murder, torture, cruel treatment and arbitrary detention. Al Jazeera reported the verdict live from The Hague.
What the court found
Thaçi was tried alongside three other senior KLA figures. Former parliament speaker Jakup Krasniqi also received 25 years; former presidential candidate Kadri Veseli received 18 years, and former senior official Rexhep Selimi received 13 years, with time already served in custody counted toward both sentences. All four defendants were acquitted on six separate charges of crimes against humanity—prosecutors failed to establish that the KLA’s violence constituted a systematic attack on the civilian population as a whole. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 45 years for Thaçi.
The proceedings began in earnest in 2023 and were unusually sensitive in the region because Thaçi was long regarded in Western capitals as a key architect of Kosovo’s peace deal with Belgrade. He resigned from the Kosovo presidency in November 2020 immediately after the indictment was unsealed.
Reactions in Pristina and Tirana
Kosovo’s Foreign Minister Glauk Konjufca described the verdicts as “a terrible and harmful judgment for Kosovo, for our people and for our liberation war.” Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama posted the single Albanian word Marre—roughly translated as shame or disgrace—on social media. Both the defence and the prosecution retain the right to appeal.
The ruling adds a fresh layer of tension to the already strained relationship between Pristina and Belgrade. Serbia, which has never recognised Kosovo’s 2008 independence declaration, is approaching President Vučić’s snap election on October 25—a campaign in which Kosovo policy will be a central flashpoint.
What comes next
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers is expected to schedule appeal hearings over the coming year. The verdicts do not by themselves affect Kosovo’s international recognition or its EU accession process, though they are widely expected to feature in future negotiations over the status of ethnic Serb municipalities in northern Kosovo and in any renewed dialogue on the Brussels Agreement.