Former Kosovo leader Hashim Thaçi on trial in The Hague for war crimes

Reuters reported the information.

Thaçi and three of his closest associates are charged with 10 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including persecution, murder, torture, and enforced disappearance during the uprising.

Among other things, they are accused of participating in a joint criminal group that carried out widespread and systematic attacks against the Serb minority in Kosovo, as well as against Kosovo Albanians. None of them admitted the charges against them.

Hashim Thaçi is a former political commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which took part in the war against Serbia. After the end of the war, Thaçi entered politics and served as Prime Minister of Kosovo from 2008 and President of Kosovo from 2016.

The Special Court for Kosovo holds Thaçi responsible for nearly 100 killings of civilians during the 1998-1999 war. After the indictment was announced in November 2020, he resigned and voluntarily surrendered to the court.

On the eve of the trial, billboards with photos of Thaçi and former parliamentary speaker Kadri Veseli appeared in Kosovo with the inscription "Heroes of War and Peace." And Kosovo war veterans and other Kosovo nationalist groups have announced a protest in support of the defendants for Sunday.

The Special Court for Kosovo, based in the Netherlands and staffed by international judges and lawyers, was established in 2015 to try cases under Kosovo law against former KLA fighters.

Many Kosovo Albanians believe that the tribunal is biased against the Kosovo Liberation Army and is interested in tarnishing its reputation.

• On February 27, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Kosovo President Albin Kurti preliminarily supported the plan for normalization of relations developed by France and Germany at a meeting in Brussels.

• On March 19, Serbia and Kosovo signed an agreement to normalize relations.

• On March 23, Kosovo joined sanctions against the Wagner PMC.