Ex-Kosovo president gets 25 years for wartime torture, murder

A Hague court convicted Hashim Thaçi and three other former Kosovo rebel leaders of war crimes against perceived opponents, imposing prison terms of 13 to 25 years while acquitting all four of crimes against humanity.THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CN) — Kosovo’s rebel-turned-president Hashim Thaçi was sentenced to 25 years in prison Wednesday after a Hague court found he helped run a wartime campaign to silence perceived opponents through torture and murder.The Kosovo Specialist Chambers convicted Thaçi and fellow former Kosovo Liberation Army leaders Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi of war crimes during the 1998–99 conflict. All had pleaded not guilty to four counts of war crimes and six of crimes against humanity.The guerrilla army emerged in the 1990s to win independence from Serbia by force. Serbia had stripped Kosovo of its autonomy in 1989, and repression of ethnic Albanians fueled resistance that increasingly turned from peaceful politics to armed rebellion.Thaçi and Veseli helped found the group. Thaçi headed its political directorate, Veseli ran intelligence, Selimi became inspector general and Krasniqi served as deputy commander and spokesman. Judges found their ambitions included controlling the Kosovo they hoped to create.They built detention facilities and used military police and intelligence services to target political rivals, suspected collaborators and others deemed obstacles. Each knowingly helped carry out the criminal plan, the court found, rejecting defense arguments that local feuds, revenge or rogue groups explained the violence.“It is not the goals that the accused sought to achieve that rendered their acts criminal. It is the means by which they sought to achieve them that did, in particular, the systematic arrest, detention, mistreatment and killings of those the accused perceived or described as the opponents,” Presiding Judge Charles L. Smith III said as part of a summary of the judgment.The convictions covered unlawful detention of at least 385 people, cruel treatment of at least 49, torture of at least 303 and 96 murders. Krasniqi also received 25 years; Veseli received 18 and Selimi 13.But all four were acquitted of crimes against humanity. Judges found widespread and systematic violence but said prosecutors had not proved it targeted a civilian population, a separate legal requirement. Victims were largely singled out for individual reasons rather than membership in such a population.Kimberly West, the specialist prosecutor heading the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, welcomed the convictions as long-delayed justice for victims. She said the prosecution concerned individuals, not the liberation army or Kosovo’s independence struggle.“Certain individuals exploited those war circumstances to commit grave crimes, and it is to the credit of Kosovo that those individuals are now being held accountable,” West said.Kosovo declared independence in 2008. Thaçi later became president, then resigned in 2020 to face the charges.Created under Kosovo law in 2015, the Specialist Chambers has international staff and tries serious crimes linked to Kosovo between 1998 and 2000. It operates in the Netherlands partly to protect witnesses from intimidation.Yet judges described persistent intimidation during the trial, which opened in April 2023 and received evidence from 273 witnesses, in person or in writing. Some changed their accounts or withheld details, while others testified despite fears for their families.Victims included Serbs, Roma and especially Kosovo Albanians. Detainees were held in schools, cowsheds and basements, sometimes without food for days. Some watched relatives being beaten. Judges found accusations of collaboration rested on little more than rumor: Serbian friends or a job at a Serbian company could invite suspicion.Incidents beginning after June 20, 1999, when judges found the conflict had ended, could not qualify as war crimes. Those already detained in connection with the fighting remained protected until their detention ended.Rodney Dixon, a barrister specializing in international criminal law at Temple Garden Chambers and Veseli’s defense counsel, said the team was bitterly disappointed. He said it had argued throughout the trial that no evidence linked Veseli to kidnapping, murder or other criminal activity during Kosovo’s struggle for freedom.“Unfortunately, this is not a good day for Kosovo, the rule of law or international law,” Dixon said. He said the team would scrutinize the judgment and mount a robust appeal to establish Veseli’s innocence and bring him home. Lawyers for the other defendants did not respond to requests for comment.Either side can appeal. West said her office would review the judgment, including the six acquittals. All four men received credit for time served. Compensation for victims remains undecided; the court said it would shortly set a timetable for reparations proceedings.Courthouse News reporter Eunseo Hong is based in the Netherlands.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads