BELGRADE – Today, the Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi was found guilty of war crimes by the Kosovo war crimes tribunal and convicted to 25 years in prison for crimes including murder, torture and illegal detention committed as top commander of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers in the Hague stated that he was guilty of the murder of 96 political opponents and perceived collaborators with Serbian security forces by Kosovo Liberation Army.
On the other hand, Thaçi was acquitted of charges of persecution, imprisonment and other inhumane acts, torture, murder and enforced disappearances as crimes against humanity.
“This Panel has determined: a sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment for the war crime of unlawful or arbitrary arrest and deprivation of liberty; a sentence of 4 years’ imprisonment for the war crime of cruel treatment; a sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment for the war crime of torture; and a sentence of 23 years’ imprisonment for the war crime of murder. This Panel sentences you to a single sentence of 25 years’ imprisonment, with credit for the time you have already spent in detention”, judge Charles Smith said.
In addition, a former Speaker of the Assembly of Kosovo, Kadri Veseli, was sentenced to 18 years in prison by the Specialist Chambers in The Hague. The trial panel found Veseli guilty of war crimes, including unlawful or arbitrary detention, cruel treatment, torture, and unlawful killing.
Veseli was acquitted of charges relating to several alleged war crimes because they had not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt or because the Panel found that the events in question did not fall within the court’s jurisdiction.
Another former Speaker of the Parliament, Jakup Krasniqi was sentenced to 25 years in prison, while former KLA commander Rexhep Selimi was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Krasniqi was found guilty of unlawful or arbitrary arrest and deprivation of liberty as a war crime committed against at least 385 people, cruel treatment as a war crime committed against at least 49 people, torture as a war crime committed against at least 303 people, and murder as a war crime committed against 96 people.
He was acquitted of charges of persecution, imprisonment and other inhumane acts, torture, murder and enforced disappearances as crimes against humanity.
Selimi was found guilty of the crimes of unlawful or arbitrary arrest and deprivation of liberty as a war crime against at least 385 people, cruel treatment as a war crime against at least 49 people, torture as a war crime against at least 303 people, and murder as a war crime against 96 people.
On the other hand, the Panel acquitted Selimi of charges of persecution, imprisonment, other inhumane acts, torture, murder and enforced disappearances as crimes against humanity.
Four former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army who fought Serb forces in the 1998-99 war, was on trial for murder, torture and persecution.
The indictment noted that Thaçi, Veseli, Selimi and Krasniqi are individually criminally responsible, pursuant to various forms of criminal responsibility, for crimes which were committed in the context of a non-international armed conflict in Kosovo and were part of a widespread and systematic attack against persons suspected of being opposed to the KLA.
Reading out a first-instance verdicts on former KLA leaders, judge Smith remarked that the Panel had concluded that the Prosecution had proven that KLA members intentionally committed acts and omissions that caused the deaths of at least 98 people, constituting the war crime of murder.
He read excerpts of the indictment concerning the mistreatment of detainees, who were brutally beaten with rifle butts, electrical cables, sticks and other objects.
