Shock and anger in Kosovo as former president convicted

Kosovo's ex-president Hashim Thaci has been sentenced to 25 years in prison by the Kosovo war crimes tribunal in The Hague for war crimes and crimes committed during the 1990s conflict against Serbia. The verdict followed a three-year trial examining Thaci's role as a top commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The court found him guilty of participating in a joint criminal enterprise targeting political opponents and perceived collaborators with Serbian security forces.

Thaci was convicted of murdering 96 individuals, arbitrarily detaining 385 people, torturing 303 people, and inflicting cruel treatment on 49 others. The court dismissed six additional charges of crimes against humanity due to insufficient evidence. Thaci's defense lawyers maintained the allegations were baseless and aimed at rewriting history.

The ruling has sparked widespread emotional reactions across Kosovo, Serbia, and the Balkans, with supporters gathering in Pristina to protest the verdict, while riot police and foreign peacekeeping forces maintained order.