Kosovo's former president, Hashim Thaci, sentenced to 25 years in prison on Wednesday for war crimes, has long been seen within the Balkan country as a guerrilla hero and symbol of its bloody fight for independence.
Thaci, who was found guilty by a special court in The Hague of war crimes committed by guerrilla fighters, including murder, arbitrary arrests and detentions, cruel treatment and torture, led the pro-independence Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the 1998-1999 war with Serbia.
The 58-year-old - who also served for more than 7 years as prime minister - saw his popularity soar when he helped organize Kosovo's declaration of independence in 2008.
But its image was tarnished by a 2010 Council of Europe report that alleged links to organized crime and serious abuses committed during and immediately after the war.
Critics also accused the former leader and his party of corruption and concentration of power among political allies.
But it was wartime charges that abruptly ended his presidency and left him detained in The Hague.
He was indicted in 2020 for war crimes and crimes against humanity, accused of responsibility for murder, torture, unlawful detention and enforced disappearance during and after the conflict.
"These are not easy moments for me and my family, and for those who have supported me and believed in me in the last three decades of our struggle for freedom, independence and nation-building," he said in 2020, when he announced his resignation and surrender to the court.
Many people watched the decision live on Wednesday on a screen in a square in the capital, Pristina, where a countdown clock had signaled the days-long wait for the decision.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of people gathered in Pristina to demand the acquittal of Thaçi and other former guerrilla leaders.
"The Snake"
Born in 1968 in the Drenica region of western Kosovo - a hotbed of ethnic Albanian resistance to Serbian rule - Thaçi became involved in passive resistance efforts against Belgrade rule as a student in the 1990s.
While studying history in Switzerland, home to a large Albanian diaspora, he became frustrated by the policy of peaceful resistance embraced by the late Kosovo president, Ibrahim Rugova.
Upon his return to Kosovo, he earned the war nickname "The Snake" as he helped build an underground guerrilla army, the KLA, to fight for independence from the forces of Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic.
The conflict left around 13,000 dead, mostly ethnic Albanians, and ended after NATO intervened in 1999, forcing Serbian forces to withdraw.
International courts later convicted several senior Serbian military and police officials for crimes committed during the conflict.
As Kosovo continued to push forward for statehood, Thaçi became one of its most prominent political figures.
During a visit to the White House, Joe Biden, then US vice president, described him as "Kosovo's George Washington."
"War crimes, never"
After the death of Rugova, who was widely considered the father of the nation, Thaçi became prime minister following the 2007 elections.
Three months later, he read the declaration of independence in parliament, announcing Kosovo's unilateral separation from Serbia - a move that Belgrade still does not recognize.
Despite corruption allegations, he remained at the heart of politics and was elected president in 2016.
He has always denied any wrongdoing during the war, describing it as a “righteous” rebellion against Serbian repression.
"I might have made political mistakes in peace, but never war crimes," he said in 2020. ©LAPSI.al
