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Watch: Kosovo’s ex-president goes on trial for 1990s war crimes

Holly Patrick
Monday 03 April 2023 09:15 BST
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Kosovo's former president went on trial on Monday, 3 April, accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the 1990s.

Hasim Thaci was trial at The Hague in the Netherlands with three other high-ranking ex-leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). They are accused of being members of a criminal organisation that abducted and mistreated perceived opponents during the KLA revolt against the security forces of then Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.

The insurgency, in which more than 13,000 people are believed to have died, eventually brought independence from Serbia and made Thaci a hero among compatriots.

Milosevic went on trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) but died in 2006 before a verdict was reached.

Thaci and the three co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to all 10 counts.

The trial is likely to be lengthy as prosecutors have predicted that they will need two years to present all evidence.

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