Kosovo's Ex-President Hashim Thaci Convicted of War Crimes, Sentenced to 25 Years

A panel of judges at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague convicted former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, of four counts of war crimes: murder, torture, cruel treatment and arbitrary detention. Presiding Judge Charles Smith sentenced him to 25 years in prison, according to the Associated Press as carried by NPR.

Thaci, 58, stood in silence in a suit and tie as the sentence was read, NPR and ITV both reported. He was tried alongside three other former commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army: Jakup Krasniqi, who also received 25 years; Kadri Veseli, sentenced to 18 years; and Rexhep Selimi, sentenced to 13 years, according to Euronews.

Prosecutors had asked for up to 45 years for each defendant, according to Anadolu Agency. All four pleaded not guilty and denied the charges throughout the roughly three-year trial.

What the court found and what it rejected

The court determined the four men were criminally responsible for the arbitrary detention and torture of hundreds of people and 96 murders, Euronews reported. Judges said the defendants "contributed significantly" to a common criminal purpose targeting political opponents and civilians perceived as collaborators with Serbian forces during the KLA's 1998-99 fight for independence.

The panel acquitted all four on six separate charges of crimes against humanity, ruling that prosecutors failed to prove the acts were part of a widespread and systematic attack on civilians, according to Euronews. Judge Smith also stressed the trial was "not about the legitimacy" of the KLA or its goal of Kosovo independence, Euronews reported, a distinction that matters given how the case has been received at home.

Hromadske specified that the killings tied to the convictions involved 96 political opponents and people perceived as collaborators with Serbian security forces.

The defense's core argument

Thaci's lawyer, Luka Misetic, told judges in February that no evidence directly links Thaci to the crimes. "There are no orders in the record from Thaci to perpetrators of crimes. There are no reports from perpetrators of crimes to Thaci," Misetic said, according to Al Jazeera. That argument, that command responsibility was never proven with direct documentary evidence, is the central defense claim. The partial acquittals on the crimes-against-humanity counts show the judges did draw a distinction between what prosecutors alleged and what they could actually prove.

Thaci himself told judges in February, "Throughout my life, I stood with the people of Kosovo defending freedom, life and dignity. I was always guided by the Western ideals of democracy, equality and justice," according to NPR, the Guardian, Al Jazeera, Breitbart and ITV, all of which quoted the same February statement.

A verdict Kosovo didn't want

Tens of thousands of people rallied in Pristina's central square over the weekend before the verdict, waving red and black Albanian flags and carrying banners reading "In the name of the people, declare them innocent," according to Al Jazeera and NPR. Euronews reported that the same crowds watched the verdict on a livestream expecting acquittal. Portraits of the four men have been posted around the capital alongside a countdown clock to the ruling.

That reaction reflects a genuine and widely shared view in Kosovo: Thaci and his co-defendants are regarded as national heroes who fought a brutal Serbian crackdown that killed roughly 13,000 people, mostly ethnic Albanians, and displaced about a million more before NATO's 78-day bombing campaign ended the war, according to the Associated Press reporting carried by NPR, Al Jazeera, Breitbart and ITV. To many Kosovars, prosecuting the men who led that fight looks like punishing liberation rather than accountability for atrocity.

The court's answer to that is the distinction Judge Smith drew: the case was not a referendum on the KLA's cause, only on specific, individually proven acts of murder, torture and detention.

What's next

Thaci and his co-defendants can appeal Wednesday's ruling, Euronews reported. Thaci also faces a separate trial on witness-intimidation charges scheduled to begin later this month, according to NPR and Breitbart. The Kosovo Specialist Chambers, an EU-backed court staffed largely by international personnel due to witness-safety concerns, previously convicted two leaders of a Kosovo war veterans' association in 2022 for intimidating witnesses by leaking confidential documents, NPR reported.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and is recognized by more than 100 UN member states, including the United States and most EU countries, according to Hromadske. Serbia still refuses to recognize it, and relations between Belgrade and Pristina remain strained despite years of EU-mediated talks, the Guardian reported.