Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci faces verdict for alleged war crimes

What the report says

A Kosovo war crimes tribunal in The Hague is due to announce verdicts on Wednesday in the case of former President Hashim Thaci and three other former Kosovo Liberation Army commanders, Al Jazeera reported. The defendants — Jakup Krasniqi, Rexhep Selimi and Kadri Veseli — are accused of murder, torture, persecution and other war crimes and crimes against humanity linked to the 1998-99 conflict that led to Kosovo’s break from Serbia.

According to the article, prosecutors have sought 45-year prison terms for each man. They allege the group targeted political opponents and civilians viewed as collaborators. Thaci and the others deny the charges, and his lawyers argued earlier this year that the record does not directly connect him to the crimes.

The case has stirred strong feeling inside Kosovo, where Thaci is still seen by many ethnic Albanians as a key figure in the war for independence. Al Jazeera said tens of thousands gathered in Pristina on Saturday to call for acquittals, while images of the four men and a countdown clock were displayed in the city.

The tribunal’s decision is being closely watched because it concerns senior figures from the wartime KLA and touches on wider tensions over how Kosovo’s independence struggle is remembered. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but Serbia does not recognise it, and relations between the two remain strained.