From guerrilla commander to president to convicted war criminal. Kosovo's most famous wartime leader has just been jailed for 25 years.

In a landmark ruling in The Hague, former president Hashim Thaci, 58, was found criminally responsible for murder, torture and illegal detention during Kosovo's bloody break from Serbia, cbinews.tv reports.

And this wasn't just any conviction. Judges at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers said Thaci, once nicknamed 'The Snake' and revered as a liberator, had "actively participated in and encouraged crimes" as a senior commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

The numbers are stark. The court found him responsible for:

Murder of 96 people, political opponents and those labelled collaborators

Arbitrary detention of 385 people

Torture of 303 people and cruel treatment of around 50 others

Presiding Judge Charles Smith put it bluntly: the so-called intelligence used to arrest people was "little more than unverified rumours." Victims were branded spies and violently treated.

It was on show in both courtrooms. Thaci, in a suit and tie, stood in silence as his sentence was read. Back home in Pristina, thousands watching on a big screen booed, chanted "Thaci, Thaci" and wept. One banner read: "In the name of the people, declare them innocent." For many Kosovo Albanians, he is still a hero.

Thaci led the KLA in the 1998-99 war against Slobodan Milosevic's Serbian forces, a conflict that killed over 13,000 people and ended only after NATO's 78-day bombing campaign. He later became Kosovo's first prime minister and then president, overseeing its 2008 declaration of independence, which Serbia still refuses to recognise.

This verdict is huge because it says even liberation leaders are not above the law. The Specialist Chambers was set up in 2015, backed by the EU and based in The Hague precisely because witnesses were too scared to testify in Kosovo.

Thaci was tried with three other KLA top brass, Kadri Veseli (18 years), Rexhep Selimi (13 years) and Jakup Krasniqi (25 years). Prosecutors had wanted 45 years for all four. Thaci denied everything, telling judges in February: "Throughout my life, I stood with the people of Kosovo defending freedom, life and dignity."

All four have credit for time already served since 2020 and have 30 days to appeal. But for Kosovo and Serbia, where the war's legacy remains deeply divisive, the legal chapter may be closing, the emotional one is far from over.

Source: cbinews.tv

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