Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci sentenced to 25 years for war crimes

Thaci, 58, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for ‌crimes including murder, ​torture and illegal detention.

Kosovo's former President Hashim Thaci in Pristina [File: Ferdi Limani/Getty Images]

The Kosovo war crimes tribunal has convicted former Kosovar President Hashim Thaci of four counts of war crimes committed during his country’s war for independence from Serbia.

Thaci, 58, was sentenced on Wednesday to 25 years in prison for ‌crimes, including murder, torture and illegal detention, committed as top commander of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the ⁠territory’s violent break ⁠from Serbia in the 1990s.

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The Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) in The Hague, Netherlands, said he was ⁠guilty of the murder ⁠of 96 political ⁠opponents and perceived collaborators with Serbian security forces by the KLA during the conflict.

Thaci denied all the charges.

Wearing a suit and tie, he stood in silence as Presiding Judge Charles Smith read out the sentence.

Three former KLA senior commanders were also sentenced for several different charges.

Jakup Krasniqi was sentenced to 25 years in prison, Kadri Veseli was given 18 years, including the time he spent in custody, and Rexhep Selimi was sentenced to 13 years, including the time spent in custody.

The verdict stated that they would have the right to appeal.

Kosovo Albanians gather during a rally in Pristina on September 16, 2026 to call for an acquittal [AFP]

The four men were acquitted on six charges of crimes against humanity because the judges said the prosecutors failed to prove that crimes were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack on civilians.

The trial has been controversial within Kosovo as many Kosovan Albanians see the KLA and Thaci as revered figures because of their role in the 1998-99 independence war.

Kosovo’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Glauk Konjufca condemned the verdict as “terrible and harmful to Kosovo”.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama reacted on social media to the verdict by releasing an illustration of The Hague with the Albanian word, “Marre”, which translates to “shame” or “disgrace”.

In Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, thousands of people watched the reading of the verdict live on a huge screen and were stunned at the sentence. Some started shouting slogans in support of the KLA and Thaci.

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”.

He said that the conviction represents a “clear, and albeit belated, confirmation of what Serbia and the Serbian people have been saying loudly for more than a quarter of a century – that the so-called KLA was a criminal and terrorist organisation”.

The KLA first emerged in the mid 1990s, but its armed operations intensified in 1997 and 1998.

Serbian forces responded with several large police and military operations, leading to a full-blown war in 1999, which resulted in the deaths of an estimated of 13,000 people and the displacement of hundreds of thousands.

During the war, Thaci was one of the heads of the KLA’s political and information directorate. Once the war ended, he became Kosovo’s prime minister and foreign minister and then served as president from 2016 to 2020.

Thaci resigned in November 2020, after he was indicted by the tribunal. He and the other convicted commanders were transferred to detention in The Hague in November of that year.

A supporter of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci reacts after he was found guilty of war crimes by the Kosovo war crimes tribunal, in The Hague, Netherlands, September 16, 2026 [Omar Havana/Reuters]

Reporting from The Hague, Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego said the verdicts come as Kosovo is facing “political deadlock”.

“There have been repeated elections to try and get some form of stable government so they can get some kind of closer relationship with the European Union going, but there have been repeated blocks to that, and failures to form that government,” she said.

“This is just going to be another stumbling block on that path to stability.”

Gallego also said the verdict “cuts right to the bone” for many Kosovar Albanians, who view Thaci as a heroic figure.

“Closure is not in the immediate future. There has already been a very angry response in Pristina from thousands of Kosovar Albanians there about this judgement,” she explained.

“It cannot be understated really how abject a decision this is for Kosovar Albanians who see Hashem Thaci as not just the country’s former president, but also a symbol of Kosovo’s liberation.”

“Not all crimes seem to be treated equally by the courts” said Jeta Xharra, the director of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Kosovo, who told Al Jazeera that the day marked more injustice for the Albanian majority of Kosovo.

“Serbian forces were involved in the killing of over 10,000 civilians, many of them women and children, yet majority members of the Serbian forces have not been held accountable for these crimes. And today, we see very lengthy sentences handed down to four members of the KLA,” she said.

Xharra said that people in Kosovo could not forget the terror they had experienced before the war, when they were treated as second-class citizens simply because they belonged to a different ethnic group.

“This court was seen as a court trying one ethnicity only, Kosovo Albanians. While that is not how the war was in Kosovo, majority of the crimes were committed by Serbian forces. Of course, all victims must get justice but this particular court is making sure that one side only is being tried”, she told Al Jazeera.

58岁的塔奇因谋杀、酷刑和非法拘禁等罪行被判处25年监禁。

科索沃前总统哈希姆·萨奇在普里什蒂纳 [图片：Ferdi Limani/Getty Images]

科索沃战争罪行法庭裁定科索沃前总统哈希姆·萨奇犯有四项战争罪行，这些罪行发生在科索沃脱离塞尔维亚独立战争期间。

现年 58 岁的塔奇于周三被判处 25 年监禁，罪名包括谋杀、酷刑和非法拘禁。这些罪行是他在 20 世纪 90 年代科索沃从塞尔维亚暴力分裂期间，担任阿尔巴尼亚族科索沃解放军 (KLA) 最高指挥官时犯下的。

前科索沃总统哈希姆·萨奇因涉嫌战争罪行面临判决（共3条记录，此为第1条）

科索沃在乱葬坑中发现23具遗骸（共3条，此为第2条）

科索沃发现第三处战时万人坑，官员扩大搜寻范围（共3处，此为第3处）

荷兰海牙的科索沃特别法庭（KSC）表示，他犯有科索沃解放军在冲突期间谋杀 96 名政治反对派和被认为是与塞尔维亚安全部队合作者的罪行。

塔奇否认了所有指控。

他身穿西装打着领带，静静地站在那里，听着主审法官查尔斯·史密斯宣读判决。

三名前科军高级指挥官也因多项不同罪名被判刑。

雅库普·克拉斯尼奇被判处 25 年监禁，卡德里·韦塞利被判处 18 年监禁（包括羁押时间），雷杰普·塞利米被判处 13 年监禁（包括羁押时间）。

判决书指出，他们有权上诉。

2026年9月16日，科索沃阿尔巴尼亚人在普里什蒂纳举行集会，呼吁无罪释放[法新社]

这四名男子被判无罪，他们被控犯有六项反人类罪，因为法官表示，检方未能证明这些罪行是针对平民的广泛而有系统的攻击的一部分。

该审判在科索沃引起了争议，因为许多科索沃阿尔巴尼亚人将科索沃解放军和塔奇视为受人尊敬的人物，因为他们在 1998-99 年的独立战争中发挥了作用。

科索沃外交部长格劳克·孔尤夫卡谴责这一判决“可怕且对科索沃有害”。

阿尔巴尼亚总理埃迪·拉马在社交媒体上对判决作出回应，发布了一张海牙的插图，上面写着阿尔巴尼亚语单词“Marre”，意思是“耻辱”或“耻辱”。

在科索沃首都普里什蒂纳，数千人通过巨型屏幕观看了宣判过程，并对判决结果感到震惊。一些人开始高喊口号，支持科索沃解放军和塔奇。

塞尔维亚副总理兼内政部长伊维察·达契奇称这些判决是对普里什蒂纳的“警告”，即“一个虚假的国家不能建立在被谋杀的塞尔维亚人的万人坑之上”。

他表示，这一判决“清楚地证实了塞尔维亚和塞尔维亚人民二十五年来一直大声疾呼的——所谓的科索沃解放军是一个犯罪和恐怖组织”。

科索沃解放军最早出现于 20 世纪 90 年代中期，但其武装行动在 1997 年和 1998 年加剧。

塞尔维亚军队随即展开了多次大规模的警察和军事行动，导致 1999 年爆发全面战争，造成约 13,000 人死亡，数十万人流离失所。

战争期间，塔奇是科索沃解放军政治和信息局的负责人之一。战争结束后，他先后担任科索沃总理和外交部长，并于2016年至2020年担任总统。

塔奇在被法庭起诉后于2020年11月辞职。同年11月，他和其余被定罪的指挥官被转移到海牙拘留。

2026年9月16日，在荷兰海牙，科索沃战争罪行法庭裁定前科索沃总统哈希姆·萨奇犯有战争罪后，萨奇的一名支持者做出反应。[奥马尔·哈瓦那/路透社]

半岛电视台驻海牙记者索尼娅·加列戈报道称，科索沃正面临“政治僵局”，此时却做出了上述判决。

她说：“他们已经多次举行选举，试图组建某种稳定的政府，以便与欧盟建立更紧密的关系，但屡屡受阻，组建政府也屡屡失败。”

“这只会成为通往稳定道路上的又一个绊脚石。”

加列戈还表示，这一判决“深深刺痛了许多科索沃阿尔巴尼亚人的心”，因为他们视塔奇为英雄人物。

“此事短期内不会结束。普里什蒂纳成千上万的科索沃阿尔巴尼亚人已经对这一判决表示强烈愤怒，”她解释说。

“对于科索沃阿尔巴尼亚人来说，这个决定是多么令人沮丧，无论怎样强调都不为过。他们不仅将哈希姆·萨奇视为该国前总统，而且视为科索沃解放的象征。”

“并非所有犯罪行为都能得到法院的平等对待，”巴尔干调查报道网驻科索沃负责人杰塔·哈拉告诉半岛电视台，这一天标志着科索沃阿尔巴尼亚族多数群体遭受了更多不公正待遇。

“塞尔维亚军队参与杀害了超过1万名平民，其中许多是妇女和儿童，但塞尔维亚军队的大多数成员并未因此罪行受到追究。而今天，我们却看到四名科索沃解放军成员被判处长期监禁，”她说道。

Xharra表示，科索沃人民无法忘记战前所经历的恐怖，当时他们仅仅因为属于不同的族群就被当作二等公民对待。

“这个法庭被视为只审判一个族群——科索沃阿尔巴尼亚人的法庭。虽然科索沃战争并非如此，但大多数罪行都是塞尔维亚军队犯下的。当然，所有受害者都应该得到公正的审判，但这个法庭却确保只有一方受到审判，”她告诉半岛电视台。