The hague: Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci has been found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to 25 years in prison, a Kosovo war crimes tribunal ruled Wednesday. Thaci, 58, faced charges for crimes including murder, torture, and illegal detention, all committed during his tenure as the top commander of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) amidst Kosovo's separation from Serbia in the 1990s.

According to Anadolu Agency, the panel concluded that Thaci, along with three other accused former high-ranking KLA commanders, shared a "common criminal purpose" and were responsible for actions carried out under this joint enterprise. The panel's findings include accountability for arbitrary detention against 385 individuals, cruel treatment against 49 individuals, torture against 303 individuals, and murder against 96 individuals.

The prosecution at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague had initially sought a maximum 45-year prison sentence for Thaci and his co-accused, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi, and Jakup Krasniqi. Despite their pleas of not guilty to war crimes and crimes against humanity following the confirmation of their indictment on October 26, 2020, the tribunal determined their culpability.

Born in 1968, Thaci previously served as Kosovo's first prime minister from 2008 to 2014 and as president from 2016 until his resignation in 2020. Kosovo declared unilateral independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008, a status that Serbia continues to contest, maintaining that Kosovo remains its "own territory."