Hashim Thaçi

That's our origin story.

And I covered the creation of the tribunal, uh, for the Justice Tribune, and actually even interviewed now Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who was then, like, the big opposition leader and still super against the court.

And since 2016, I moved back to The Hague and covered it for Reuters out of The Hague, and mostly it was kind of low-key, but that was until Hashim Thaci, former KLA top commander and Mr.

Independent Kosovo, uh, then president of the country, stepped down to hand himself in to the court.

So is this kind of smart PR also on his side to portray it as completely a judgment on the KLA instead of potentially a judgment on some people in the KLA who had a kind of side criminal gig where they tried to get rid of their political opponents, which is what the judgment essentially said happened?

This is one very specific thing we have to keep in mind, because the man in The Hague is not Hashim Thaci the politician we know.

Uh, Thaci in The Hague is seen amongst people as the KLA, not as an individual, not as the former president or the former, uh, prime minister.

There are many people who would never vote Thaci or would be very critical towards his governing, but they would stand to defend what for them is being damaged, which is the Kosovo Liberation Army.

That decision was partly reversed after international condemnation.

On the 16th of September 2026, the Trial Panel pronounced its judgment in the case of Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi, and Jakup Krasniqi.

The Trial Panel found that all four accused were criminally responsible for the war crimes of arbitrary detention against 385 individuals, cruel treatment against 49 individuals, torture against 303 individuals, and murder against 96 individuals.

Yugoslavia.

The last months has tested how the region and the EU relate to each other.

Several events that we will discuss put a spotlight on this relation, from the recent and upcoming elections in Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Serbia, The Hague Tribunal convicting Hashim Thaçi of war crimes, to the state-sponsored funeral of Ratko Mladić in Serbia, and what the recent Icelandic referenda means for the future of EU enlargement.

Today, Florian Bieber, Donika Emini, Damir Kap idžić, and Tena Prelec bring their newsworthy picks for the month.

Seriously Balkans, the BIAPod talks.

Jack Smith's role, Jack Smith worked at the Hague years later as the chief prosecutor for the Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor's Office.

where he investigated and indicted former Kosovo President Hashim Tachi rather than Milosevic.

Smith later became U.S. Justice Department special counsel, handling special investigations into Donald Trump.

Still, you don't hand a job like that to, say, someone with the prosecutorial skills of an Eric Pizza Schmidt.

He lashed out immediately.

He r- he called for the arrest, arresting of, uh, Hashim Thaci.

And, and, you know, I, I just see it very plainly, this guy is as political as you come.

Fast-forward to what he did on President Trump, I mean, it's clear that he had, uh, vengeance.

The same kind of tribunal that, uh, which, um, which they, uh, uh, announced at the time, you know, would, uh, herald this new world order and, uh, would mean that sovereignty couldn't, uh, you know, be used as a shield to commit war crimes and so on.

Uh, that same kind of tribunal, in this case, the Special Tribunal for Kosovo, uh, has, as I say, now condemned, uh, Hashim Thaçi for a, a number of crimes.

It might be worth saying what those crimes were.

I, I have to confess, I have not read the judgment.

In 1999, the United States and NATO intervened in the nightmarish situation in Kosovo, where Serbian forces were turning hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians into refugees.

The Kosovo Liberation Army was led by Hashim Thaci, a guerrilla leader who would later become an independent Kosovo's president.

Today, Hashim Thaci, a man who opposed the Serb invaders, is a convicted war criminal himself.

What happened? That is next, as we report history as it happens.

I'm Martin DeCaro.

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