The prosecution has requested 45 years in prison for the former president of Kosovo

International war crimes prosecutors have requested 45 years in prison for the former president of the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, who was in power from 2016 to 2020. This was reported by the Reuters news agency on February 9.

The publication notes that Thaci and three other former commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) are accused of harassment, murder, torture and abduction of Serbs and Gypsies during the Kosovo Albanian uprising that took place between 1998 and 1999.

"The defendants committed crimes against their alleged opponents in order to seize control of Kosovo," Prosecutor Kimberly West said at the tribunal in The Hague.

According to the Prosecutor's Commission of the Specialized Chamber for Kosovo (the Interim Independent Criminal Court located in The Hague), the former leader of Kosovo and other KLA commanders waged a violent campaign against political opponents.

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Why are the countries of the region preparing for an armed confrontation

On January 3, Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botan-Kharchenko pointed to the ethnic cleansing being carried out in Kosovo against Serbian citizens. He clarified that on the territory of the self-proclaimed unit, the Serbs are literally being "squeezed out", for whom unbearable living conditions are being created.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, at a meeting with Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric during the UN General Assembly on September 25, 2025, stated that Russia fully supports the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Serbia. He specified that bilateral cooperation between the two states continues to develop even despite the crisis in international relations.

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