Former Kosovo president Thaci sentenced to 25 years for war crimes

Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci was found guilty of war crimes including murder, torture and illegal detention by the Kosovo war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Wednesday.

Thaci, 58, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes committed as top commander of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the territory's violent break from Serbia in 1998-99.

The ruling was closely watched in Kosovo and Serbia, where the legacy of the conflict and Kosovo's later declaration of independence in 2008 remain a source of tension between ethnic Kosovo Albanians and Serbs.

It was criticised as too harsh in Kosovo, while Thaci supporters briefly scuffled with police in The Hague.

The tribunal said Thaci was guilty of the murder of 96 political opponents and perceived collaborators with Serbian security forces by Kosovo Liberation Army forces during the conflict.

He was also convicted for the arbitrary illegal detention of 385 people, torture of 303 people and cruel treatment of 49 people.

None of the victims were active participants in hostilities at the time the crimes were committed, the court added.

It said Thaci had actively participated in and encouraged crimes as part of a joint criminal enterprise with a common plan.

"The plan was as simple as it was harmful. In particular, it entailed: setting up detention facilities in all areas controlled by the KLA; identifying individuals perceived as opposing the KLA; and arresting and detaining them and, if necessary, killing them," presiding judge Charles Smith said.

Victims were held in inhumane conditions, beaten, kept in tiny cells and not given enough food or medical care, he added.

Thaci, who stood in silence as the judge read out the conviction and the sentence, had denied all charges.

He can appeal the verdict.

SUPPORTERS GATHER IN PRISTINA AND THE HAGUE

Thaci remains a revered figure for many Kosovo Albanians, while the tribunal itself is deeply unpopular in Kosovo.

Kosovo's incumbent Prime Minister Albin Kurti called the ruling an unacceptable injustice.

"While the verdict may have been formally pronounced in the name of the people of Kosovo, this hollow formula must not be conflated with the will of the people," he said in a statement.

The ruling comes at a difficult time for Kosovo, one of Europe’s poorest countries. Thaci's conviction is expected to boost his political rival Kurti but also fragment Kosovo's already divided parliament.

“The political crisis can continue now because the verdict weakens the opposition,” said political analyst Artan Muhaxhiri. “They will be focused on this issue and will have less space to fight Kurti.”

In The Hague, the scuffles broke out between several hundred Thaci supporters and police when demonstrators tried to walk to the tribunal from a location where they had been listening to an audio live stream of the judgement.

In Pristina, Kosovo's capital, a crowd of hundreds marched across town following the verdict and dozens of riot police were stationed across the city.

"This verdict is shameful. From today, there will be no peace in Kosovo," said Raif Pllana, a former KLA fighter who came out in support of Thaci in central Pristina.

Yet in Belgrade, Serbs criticised the judgement as too lenient.

"It’s disgraceful. I don’t think the Serbs were taken into account at all," said resident Vladimir Jelenic.

PROSECUTORS DEMANDED 45-YEAR SENTENCE

Prosecutors had sought a 45-year sentence against Thaci and three other former top commanders of the KLA.

But the three-judge panel dismissed six charges of crimes against humanity. They said prosecutors had failed to show these happened as part of widespread or systematic attacks against the civilian population as a whole.

Lawyers for Thaci had argued that the accusations were unfounded and amounted to an attempt to rewrite history.

The Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers was established in 2015 under international pressure to try former KLA fighters for alleged wartime and post-war crimes.