A tribunal in The Hague has convicted former Kosovo Liberation Army leader Hashim Thaci<\/p>\n
Hashim Thaci, the former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), has been found responsible for war crimes committed by the militant group during its NATO-backed campaign to break away from Serbia in the 1990s.
\nThe ethnic Albanian, who served as the first president of the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo, has been found guilty of the murder of 96 political opponents and suspected Serbian collaborators, the verdict said. He was also convicted for the unlawful detention and torture of hundreds of people.
\nThe 58-year-old Thaci and three other former KLA leaders tried in The Hague are widely regarded as national heroes in Kosovo. Thaci has denied the charges. His defense argued that senior figures in the KLA could not control rank-and-file separatist fighters and thus could not be held responsible for crimes committed under their leadership. Lawyers described the group as lacking a strict military hierarchy during the 1998-99 conflict.
\nNATO\u2019s bombing campaign targeting Serbia, which Washington and its European allies framed as a humanitarian intervention, ensured KLA\u2019s victory. Belgrade does not recognize Kosovo as an independent state, having rejected the unilateral declaration passed by the breakaway entity\u2019s parliament in 2008.<\/p>\n
A demonstration in support of Hashim Thaci and other defendants was held in Pristina on September 12, 2026.<\/p>\n
\u00a9\u00a0 Pierre Crom \/ Getty Images <\/p>\n
The US, the UK, France, Germany, and many other Western and European nations, however, officially recognize Kosovo\u2019s independence. Camp Bondsteel, the headquarters of NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR), is the largest American military base in the Balkans.<\/p>\n
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Among the more gruesome claims related to the Kosovo conflict was that the KLA harvested organs from Serbian prisoners and sold them on the black market, which former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia Carla Del Ponte detailed in her 2008 memoir.
\nThe allegations were further substantiated in a 2010 European Council report, which also implicated former Thaci subordinates in the trafficking of humans, drug and arms, as well as protection rackets and other organized crime. His government allegedly ensured impunity for those \u201cmafia-like\u201d networks, the document said.
\nThe Serbian government accused the West of pursuing selective justice in the wake of the Balkan wars, allegedly focusing on Serbian suspects and overlooking crimes attributed to their opponents.
\nThe Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC), where Thaci was tried, was set up in The Hague in 2016, after earlier cases failed in Kosovo due to alleged political interference and witness intimidation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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