Former Kosovo President and former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commander Hashim Thaci has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for war crimes by an international court in The Hague. The court held him criminally responsible for crimes committed during the violent conflict to separate Kosovo from Serbia in 1998-99.

Thaci had denied all the charges brought against him.

According to the prosecution, during the 1998-99 war against Serbian forces, Thaci and other senior figures linked to the KLA leadership were accused of involvement in killings, torture and a campaign of repression against political opponents and ethnic minorities.

The trial has been highly controversial in Kosovo and neighbouring Albania. The 1998-99 Kosovo conflict was extremely violent, with both the KLA and Serbian forces facing allegations of war crimes.