Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi has been sentenced to 25 years in prison by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague for war crimes committed during the 1998–99 Kosovo conflict. Thaçi, 58, was found guilty of murder, torture, cruel treatment and arbitrary detention linked to crimes committed while he was a senior commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the conflict with Serbian forces, according to sources. The court found that 96 people were killed, 303 were subjected to torture, and 385 were unlawfully detained in crimes for which Thaçi was held criminally responsible.
The victims included people perceived as political opponents or collaborators, including Kosovo Albanians and members of ethnic minorities. The trial concerned events between March 1998 and September 1999 in several locations across Kosovo as well as in Kukës and Cahan in northern Albania. The Kosovo Specialist Chambers said the case involved allegations of crimes committed by KLA members against civilians and people who were not taking part in hostilities.
Thaçi, who served as Kosovo’s president from 2016 until his resignation in 2020, has denied the charges. He was transferred to the Kosovo Specialist Chambers’ detention facilities in The Hague in November 2020 after his indictment was confirmed. The verdict marks a major development in the long-running international prosecution of former senior KLA figures.
The trial of Thaçi and three other former KLA commanders began in April 2023. The evidentiary proceedings were completed in December 2025 after 134 witnesses testified in court, with closing statements delivered in February 2026. The court’s ruling comes more than two decades after the end of the Kosovo war and places the wartime conduct of the KLA’s former leadership under renewed international scrutiny.
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