Kosovo’s former head of state Hashim Thaci was sentenced to 25 years in prison by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on Wednesday for the war crimes of arbitrary detention, cruel treatment, torture, and murder, committed from April 1998 to June 1999 during the Kosovo war.
“In the names of the people of Kosovo, the panel finds you, Hashim Thaci, guilty of arbitrary arrest and detention as a war crime against at least 385 persons; cruel treatment against at least 49; torture as a war crime against at least 303 persons; murder as a war crime committed against 96 persons,” presiding judge Charles Smith III announced.
Thaci’s co-defendants Jakup Krasniqi, Kadri Veseli and Rexhep Selimi were sentenced to 25, 18, and 13 years in prison respectively. All four men were found guilty of bearing responsibility for the crimes while they were senior officials of the Kosovo Liberation Army, during the war with Serbian forces.
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