During the Kosovo conflict, the four accused \u201ccontributed significantly\u201d to the common criminal purpose of targeting KLA perceived opponents, said Judge Smith. The crimes were all the consequences of \u201ca criminal plan that had been devised by the accused and others and which they implemented personally\u201d, he told the courtroom, where all accused were present, and a full public gallery. A few thousand people also followed the judgment livestream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the KLA goal of \u201csecuring Kosovo's independence and establishing political institutional control over what they hoped would be an independent Kosovo\u201d, did not \u201crendered their acts criminal\u201d, Judge Smith said, \u201cit is the means by which they sought to achieve them that did. In particular, the systematic arrest, detention, mistreatment and killing of those the accused perceived or described as the opponents\u201d. Victims included Kosovo Albanians associated with other political or military forces, people alleged to be associated with the Serbs, sometimes for reasons such as having Serbian friends or working for Serbian companies, and members of ethnic minorities, such as Roma and Serbs, said the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tha\u00e7i and Krasniqi were sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment, Veseli to 18 years and Selimi to 13. Time already served will be taken out of the sentence. They and the prosecution have now 30 days to appeal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The crimes were committed in the context of the 1998-99 ethnic Albanian war for independence from Serbia, which ruled over the region. Most of the 13,000 people who died in the war were ethnic Albanians. Another million were driven from their homes. However, the KSC were created to deal only with alleged crimes by the KLA, which has been seen as a liberation army by a majority of Kosovars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis case is not concerned with weighing the responsibilities of one side against those of the other. This case is not concerned with the crimes of Serbian forces and paramilitaries undoubtedly committed against Kosovo Albanians,\u201d clarified Judge Smith. He added the Court is \u201cexclusively concerned\u201d with the individual criminal responsibility of the accused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, large crowds waving KLA flags had gathered<\/a> in Pristina, Kosovo\u2019s capital city, to watch the verdict from giant public screens on Wednesday. After the judgement, some protesters marched towards the headquarters of the EU mission in Kosovo and were contained by riot police. Political parties<\/a> in Kosovo have called for calm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti<\/a> said that the conviction and \u201csuch a severe sentence\u201d were an \u201cunacceptable injustice\u201d. He added that they did not represent \u201cthe will of the people\u201d. While Kosovo Foreign Minister Glauk Konjufca<\/a> added that the judgment \u201cwill be very damaging, both for our narrative and for the state of Kosovo\u201d. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama also criticised the ruling. The EU has called on all parties to respect the KSC verdict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe sensitivities involved in this have been grossly underestimated by the internationals who created this court\u201d, Aidan Hehir, Professor of International Relations at the University of Westminster, told Justice Info before the verdict. \u201cI don't think they quite realised how visceral a finding that they're guilty will be. This could have a really deep impact on Kosovo society. The opposition to the court is about much more than Hashim Tha\u00e7i\u201d, he continued. \u201cThe young people in particular got very tired of the corruption in Kosovo. I've met lots of people who intensely dislike Tha\u00e7i and believe he should be in court, but believe he should be in court for corruption<\/a>, not for being part of an organisation that was defending the Kosovo Albanians against state-sponsored mass slaughter,\u201d Hehir said. He explained it is not about the political affiliation, but it has \u201cmuch more to do with the image of the country, which people are very angry about\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amer Alija, from the Pristina-based Humanitarian Law Centre, does not think that this trial has brought any \u201cdirect improvements\u201d on the ground. \u201cThere is a risk that the proceedings and judgments of the KSC may be used politically by the parties to reinforce their respective narratives about the war, rather than contributing to a broader and more balanced process of dealing with the past,\u201d he said, anticipating a conviction. \u201cThe judgment may also affect the level of public trust in the KSC and may deepen political and social polarization. Part of society may perceive this conviction not only as a judgment against four individuals, but also as an indirect judgment on the KLA and the liberation war. Legally, these are two entirely different issues: the Court is deciding on the individual criminal responsibility of the accused, not on the character of the KLA as a whole. However, at the social and political level, this distinction may be much more difficult to maintain,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The verdict comes at a heated moment. On August 27, Bosnian Serb leader Ratko Mladi\u0107 died in The Hague. He was serving a life sentence handed by the UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, including for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. Thousands attended the funeral, held in Serbia. \u201cTo honour someone like Mladi\u0107 shows something is deeply troubling within a society\u201d, says Fred Abrahams, co-director of the Aryeh Neier Center for Justice in Berlin. He worked on Kosovo for Human Rights Watch, an NGO, at the time of the conflict and testified both at the ICTY and at the KSC. Mladi\u0107\u2019s death \u201cshows the gaps between the societies and the challenges for reconciliation and justice\u201d, he says. With the Tha\u00e7i judgment out a couple of weeks later, \u201cit's a double header of bringing back the past in a very short period, after so long\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Kosovo Court was set up in 2015 by the Kosovo parliament under pressure from the country\u2019s western allies to handle ex-KLA fighters. The Chambers are formally part of the Kosovo judicial system, but are located in the Netherlands and are fully staffed by internationals. Its funding comes from the European Union, and according to the Court\u2019s annual reports<\/a>, it has amounted to \u20ac497,312,702 since 2016 \u2013 i.e. an average of 50 million euros a year. Five states also contribute to the Court, many by sending staff, while Switzerland pays for its outreach program in Kosovo. In the annual reports, the Swiss contribution has totaled \u20ac605,200 since 2018. The Court does not disclose its budget lines so it is not possible to know how much money was spent on the war crimes trial for Tha\u00e7i and the three others. Information is scarce also when it comes to the defence budget, which the government of Kosovo pays. In January 2026, data from the Ministry of Justice published by \"Betimi p\u00ebr Drejt\u00ebsi\"<\/a> revealed that in 2025, the Republic of Kosovo paid \u20ac6,515,067 for the defence at the KSC. The largest amount, \u20ac1,320,000 for each of the defendants, was spent on this main war crimes trial.<\/p>\n\n\n EU FUNDING TO KSC:<\/strong><\/p>\n TOTAL: \u20ac 497,312,702<\/p>\n SWITZERLAND FUNDIN TO KSC (OUTREACH):<\/strong><\/p>\n TOTAL: \u20ac 605,200<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n \u201cThis trial was conducted against the backdrop of a persistent climate of witness intimidation<\/a>\u201d, said Judge Smith on Wednesday. \u201cSome witnesses may have been afraid or unwilling to tell the panel their full story out of concerns for their own and their family's safety. Others out of misplaced loyalty.\u201d Nevertheless, \u201cseveral witnesses did so in the face of intimidation and attempts to discourage them from testifying,\u201d he stated. \u201cThe panel's ability to render this judgment is a testimony to their courage and determination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cProbably the main reason that this court exists is witness intimidation\u201d, says Abrahams. The Kosovo Court was specifically set up outside of the country because of worries over the protection of those testifying. Witness intimidation has been at the heart of the successive attempts by the international community to bring accountability for serious crimes committed in the Kosovo war. It was already a hurdle at the ICTY. For instance, when ICTY judges acquitted former KLA commander Fatmir Limaj, they wrote that many witnesses \u201cexpressed concerns for their lives and those of their family\u201d and that fear was very perceptive, especially for witnesses still living in Kosovo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Witness protection measures in the trial for Thaci and the three others often included holding hearings behind closed doors. Since its start in April 2023, 134 witnesses, the vast majority from the prosecution side, 2 for the victims\u2019 side and 7 for the defence, testified in the trial, which lasted 234 hearing days. 70 witnesses testified mostly in public session, and 61 of them did not have any protective measures, Angela Griep, head of public information and communication at the Court, told Justice Info. However, another 64 were heard mostly or completely in private sessions, although some of their transcripts have since been made public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nevertheless, besides three war crimes cases, the court has also seen three cases for obstruction of justice or intimidation of witnesses. The latest one, which held closing statements last week, saw Tha\u00e7i himself accused of allegedly violating the secrecy of the proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The high number of private hearings has fueled mistrust across Kosovo society. \u201cThe main challenges faced by the Court in the cases it has handled were, first and foremost, ensuring transparency,\u201d said Alija. He stated that not being able to follow almost half of the trial made it less accessible to the public and to monitors. He also disputed the idea that Kosovo could not deal with the issue. \u201cWe have dozens of cases in front of the Kosovo courts. During the 26 years after the war, we have sometimes had cases when people put pressure on others to testify or not. But in general, witnesses are testifying without pressure,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n\n\n\t According to Hehir, \u201cthe idea that the local court system doesn't work comes back to the internationals because they created that system\u201d. Since 1999, thousands of internationals have been based in Kosovo. In June that year the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) and the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), supported by the regional security organisation OSCE Mission, were deployed in the country to stop the ongoing violence and provide interim administration. In 2008, the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) was also launched. \u201cAnybody that spent any time looking into what happened in Kosovo after 1999 would have to conclude that there was massive corruption in Kosovo, and that the international community knew about it and went along with it,\u201d said Hehir. In 2017, the World Bank<\/a> published an extensive report on corruption in the Balkan state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The international organisations that were in Pristina at the time and the governments that contributed to them are also \u201cmetaphorically on trial\u201d before the KSC, said Abrahams. \u201cThe crimes that happened after the war happened under the nose of these internationals, and they didn't speak because they wanted stability,\u201d he said. \u201cThat's a huge failure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBy admitting to their active role in the region, the EU and its partners could have opened a new dialogue that could have eventually led to the admittance of all parties of the established facts of the wars,\u201d said Frauke Seebass, visiting fellow at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Brussels, who focuses on Kosovo and the EU enlargement policies. She said the moment could still be seized, \u201csince the verdict is going to spur the war of narratives even more, during a time when tensions are more explosive than they have been in a long time\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kosovars have long accused the Court of being one-sided, as it does not look at crimes committed by the Serbs. \u201cThe proceedings have reopened highly sensitive discussions about the war, the victims and the role of the KLA,\u201d said Alija. \u201cAmong a significant part of Kosovo society, there is a perception that the Specialist Chambers are selective, since their focus has been on alleged crimes committed by members of the KLA. This has created a sense of inequality, particularly when viewed against the scale of crimes committed by Serbian forces during the war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Adding to that is the political dimension, as Tha\u00e7i and the other men left politics to hand themselves to the Court in The Hague. \u201cThis affected the domestic political balance and made the Court a constant part of political debate in Kosovo,\u201d said Alija. \u201cThe length of the proceedings and the prolonged pre-trial detention have also contributed to criticism and polarization.\u201d The preparation phase in the Tha\u00e7i trial, which started in late 2020 took well over two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Hashim](\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Kosovo_Thaci-and-co-accused-Kosovo-Specialist-Chambers_@AFP.jpg\")
Political reactions in Kosovo<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Two blasts from the past<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Half a billion euros<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The argument on witness intimidation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
International failure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Lack of local legitimacy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Demonstration](\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Kosovo_protest-pristina-judgment-KSC_@Elvis-Barukcic-AFP.jpg\")
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Kosovo_specialist-chambers-Kimberly-West-prosecutor-_@Kosovo-Specialist-Chambers-540x360.jpg\")
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