Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci has been handed a 25-year prison sentence after being convicted of war crimes committed during the 1990s conflict for independence from Serbia.
The 58-year-old was sentenced at The Hague on Wednesday following a three-year trial over crimes linked to the war, which claimed more than 10,000 lives.
Thaci was found guilty of murder, illegal arrests, torture and cruel treatment. However, several other accusations brought against him were not proven during the trial.
Thaci was a co-founder and commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which fought for Kosovo’s independence. He remains widely regarded as a hero in Kosovo.
He had been accused of killing nearly 100 people, alongside allegations of enforced disappearances and other atrocities.
The former president stood trial with three other former KLA commanders who faced similar charges.
The KLA was formed in the early 1990s by ethnic Albanians while Kosovo was still a province of Serbia. During the war, the group was also accused of attacking members of Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority.
Thaci became Kosovo’s first prime minister after the territory declared independence in 2008. He later became president but stepped down in 2020 to face the charges at The Hague.
Thousands of people in Kosovo followed the verdict on large screens. In the capital, Pristina, photographs and videos showed people in tears after learning of the decision.