THE HAGUE/PRISTINA--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.
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.
