The International Court in The Hague has sentenced former Kosovo Liberation Army commander and later president of the unrecognized Republic of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, to 25 years in prison for war crimes committed during the violent break with Serbia in the 1990s, reports infohub.kz.
Thaci himself denied all charges.
According to the court's ruling, his associates Redzep Selimi, Kadri Veseli, and Jakup Krasniqi, who held high-ranking positions in the Kosovo Liberation Army leadership, also bear criminal responsibility for war crimes.
"All four defendants bear criminal responsibility for war crimes, including the arbitrary detention of 385 people, cruel treatment of 49 people, torture of 303 people, and murder of 96 people," the court's conclusion states.
However, the judicial panel found the defendants not guilty of crimes against humanity, as the Special Prosecutor failed to prove a widespread or systematic attack on the civilian population. The defendants were also acquitted of a number of specific instances of war crimes.
The court established that during the conflict in Kosovo, Thaci, Veseli, Selimi, and Krasniqi made significant contributions to achieving a common criminal goal — the persecution of persons considered opponents of the political and military objectives of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
According to the court's decision, Thaci played a key role in developing and implementing this common goal, which included establishing detention centers, identifying persons perceived as opponents of the Kosovo Liberation Army, their arrest and detention, and, if necessary, murder.