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Hague court brings new charges against former Kosovo leader Thaci

Hague court brings new charges against former Kosovo leader Thaci

Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci. Archive

Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci. Archive | Photo credit: Reuters

Prosecutors at the special international tribunal in The Hague on Friday (December 6, 2024) charged former Kosovo president Hashim Thaci, who is indicted for war crimes, with obstruction and contempt of court.

Thaci “has been charged with three counts of obstruction of officials in the performance of their official duties, four counts of breach of confidentiality of proceedings and four counts of contempt of court,” according to a statement released by prosecutors.

A separate statement from the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) in The Hague said that “the prosecution charges the defendant with crimes related to alleged illegal efforts to influence witness testimonies in Mr. Thaci’s war crimes trial.” and others.”

Four others were charged against Thaci, including the former head of Kosovo’s intelligence agency, Bashkim Smakaj, and Hajredin Kuci, who previously served as deputy prime minister and justice minister.

According to the court statement, Mr. Thaci provided the four with confidential information about the prosecution’s witnesses and had “directed them to influence” their testimonies.

Thaci is scheduled to appear Sunday at a public hearing related to the new charges.

The KSC is a court located in The Hague that primarily prosecutes former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) combatants for war crimes.

Among them is former KLA commander Thaci, who dominated Kosovo politics after it declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and rose to president.

Thaci resigned from the presidency in late 2020 to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity and pleaded not guilty.

tarnished hero

Thaci is widely seen as a guerrilla hero in Kosovo, but prosecutors said he openly oversaw a brutal reign of violence as the ethnic Albanian KLA sought to tighten its grip on power during and after the war.

The Kosovo war, the last of the 1990s conflicts that tore apart the former Yugoslavia, claimed an estimated 13,000 lives.

It ended after a NATO bombing campaign forced Serbian forces to withdraw.

Dubbed the “George Washington of Kosovo” by then-US Vice President Joe Biden, Thaci was the young nation’s first prime minister after it declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

But he has long been dogged by accusations of crimes during and after the war, along with accusations of corruption in Kosovo, where KLA commanders retain key roles in public life.

The KSC was created in 2015 after a 2010 Council of Europe report linked Thaci to organized crime during and after the war.

International tensions remain high over Kosovo, which has been recognized by many Western countries but not by Serbia, Russia or China.