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- A few hours after resigning on charges from the Kosovo war crimes tribunal, the country’s former president, Hashim Thaci, was arrested.
- As announced by the Hague court on Thursday evening, Thaci has been transferred to a court detention center.
- As commander-in-chief of the UCK’s clandestine army, Thaci is said to have been responsible for crimes against civilians during the 1998-1999 War of Independence.
“I am not going to appear in court as president. To protect the integrity of the state, I am resigning today, ”Hashim Thaci told a press conference in Pristina. Kosovo’s special court in The Hague has now upheld the previous preliminary indictment against him, he said.
Thaci had been commander-in-chief of the Kosovar Albanian underground army during the 1998-1999 war of independence. The special court prosecutor’s office had already filed preliminary charges against him and several other former KLA commanders last June.
Shortly before, the president of the PDK (Democratic Party of Kosovo), President Kadri Veseli, announced that the charges against him had been confirmed. He immediately went to The Hague to counter the allegations, he wrote on the PDK website.
The prosecution accuses of murder, persecution and torture
The provisional indictment in June charged the politicians with 10 serious crimes, including murder, persecution and torture. Hundreds of Kosovar Albanians, Serbs, Roma and members of other ethnic groups, as well as political opponents, were among their victims, according to the indictment.
The current president Thaci was then the supreme command of the KLA. Many important politicians held command positions in the military. The KLA fought Serbian security forces who tried to use force to prevent Kosovo, which is mainly inhabited by Albanians, from separating from Serbia.
