Kosovo Serbia war crimes | Former President Hashim Thaci's trial opens

Kosovo’s former President pleaded not guilty on April 3 to charges including murder, torture and persecution as he went on trial with three other former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), while a prosecutor insisted that “nobody is above the law.” Hashim Thaci resigned from office in 2020 to defend himself against the charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during his country’s 1998-99 war for independence from Serbia.

Kosovo's former President pleaded not guilty on April 3 to charges including murder, torture and persecution as he went on trial with three other former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), while a prosecutor insisted that “nobody is above the law.”

Hashim Thaci resigned from office in 2020 to defend himself against the charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during his country's 1998-99 war for independence from Serbia.

“I am fully not guilty,” Mr. Thaci told judges at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers as the trial opened. The other three defendants also repeated not guilty pleas made at earlier pretrial hearings.

The case has stirred an outpouring of support from across the political spectrum in Kosovo. On Sunday, thousands of people took to the streets to show their support for the defendants. Many Kosovars consider the Netherlands-based court an injustice and view it as an attempt to rewrite the history of their struggle for independence.

Prosecutor Alex Whiting said the KLA, a guerrilla force which battled against the powerful Serbian military, had “a very clear and explicit policy of targeting collaborators and perceived traitors including political opponents.”

Mr. Whiting said prosecutors would prove that the KLA and was responsible for hundreds of murders and illegal detentions across Kosovo and northern Albania in 1998 and 1999 and that the four accused are responsible for those crimes as military leaders of the KLA general staff.

“Most of the victims of the accused were fellow Kosovar Albanians. In their zeal to target and eliminate those persons they deemed to be opponents. The accused endorsed and implemented a policy that often victimised their own," Mr. Whiting said, adding that the trial was about key defending principles.