A digital archive documenting the Kosovo War, Albanian resistance and the Kosovo Liberation Army — built upon documents, research, testimonies and verifiable sources.
A digital archive documenting the Kosovo War, Albanian resistance and the Kosovo Liberation Army — built upon documents, research, testimonies and verifiable sources.
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Thaçi, Veseli, Selimi and Krasniqi: what the court decided
On 16 September 2026 Trial Panel II of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers found Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi guilty of war crimes and not guilty of crimes against humanity. The judgment is not final.
According to the official summary of the judgment of 16 September 2026, Trial Panel II found all four guilty, as participants in a joint criminal enterprise, of the arbitrary detention of at least 385 people, the cruel treatment of at least 49, the torture of at least 303 and the murder of 96 people at KLA-controlled sites in Kosovo and northern Albania, from April 1998 to 20 June 1999. The Panel found that the acts of violence amounted to a widespread and systematic attack, but that the prosecution did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that the attack was directed against a civilian population, because victims were selected mainly on individual grounds; all crimes-against-humanity counts therefore failed. Incidents that began after 20 June 1999 could not qualify as war crimes. The Panel also named other persons as members of the enterprise who were not on trial: no finding of guilt was made against them and they remain presumed innocent.
Charges and outcome
Crimes against humanity: persecution, imprisonment, other inhumane acts, torture, murder, enforced disappearance — not guilty
War crimes: illegal or arbitrary arrest and detention, cruel treatment, torture, murder — guilty (at first instance)
Trial panel
Trial Panel II: Presiding Judge Charles L. Smith III, Judges Christoph Barthe and Guénaël Mettraux, Reserve Judge Fergal Gaynor.
According to the official summary of the judgment, page 1.
What happens next
01The parties may appeal to the Court of Appeals Panel. The judgment becomes final only after the appeal, or once the deadline for appeal has passed.
02The decision on reparations for victims is still pending.
03The full public, redacted version of the judgment will be published later; until then the summary read in court is the only text available.
Outcome for each accused
Hashim Thaçi
Per the Panel's findings: founding member of the KLA and its General Staff; from June 1998 head of the Political Directorate
Guilty of war crimes (Counts 3, 5, 7, 9); not guilty of crimes against humanity (Counts 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10).
25 years' imprisonment (first-instance judgment)
Not final
Kadri Veseli
Per the Panel's findings: KLA founding member; head of the Intelligence Directorate (May 1998 – March 1999)
Guilty of war crimes; not guilty of crimes against humanity.
18 years' imprisonment (first-instance judgment)
Not final
Rexhep Selimi
Per the Panel's findings: founding member of the General Staff; head of the Operational Directorate (March–August 1998)
Guilty of war crimes; not guilty of crimes against humanity.
13 years' imprisonment (first-instance judgment)
Not final
Jakup Krasniqi
Per the Panel's findings: member of the General Staff; official KLA spokesperson from July 1998
Guilty of war crimes; not guilty of crimes against humanity.
25 years' imprisonment (first-instance judgment)
Not final
134 witnesses testified in court: 125 called by the Prosecution, 7 by the Defence, 2 by Victims' Counsel. Most testified with protective measures and are not identified. Only public witnesses are shown here, by the party that called them.
From incorporation into Serbia after the Balkan Wars to the 1974 Constitution: limited autonomy, the era of the security service and the demonstrations of 1968.
The 1981 demonstrations, political trials, the Serbian Academy Memorandum, the miners' march and hunger strike, and the constitutional changes of March 1989 that ended autonomy.
The LDK and Ibrahim Rugova, the Kaçanik Constitution, mass dismissals, schools in private homes, blood-feud reconciliation, and the limits of the peaceful strategy up to Dayton.
Likoshan, Qirez and Prekaz, the spread of the KLA, the summer offensive and mass displacement, Security Council resolutions and the OSCE Verification Mission.
Reçak, Rambouillet, NATO's air campaign, the mass expulsions and crimes of 1999, the Kumanovo Agreement, Resolution 1244, the entry of KFOR and the KLA's demilitarization.
International administration, violence against Serbs, Roma and others after June 1999, the missing and mass graves, March 2004, independence and the Specialist Chambers.
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What is where
Every part of the archive, one sentence each. For a longer explanation open the quick guide.
Evidence status: Judicially established. Established in a final court judgment. It covers only what the court found, not every later interpretation.Established in a final court judgment. It covers only what the court found, not every later interpretation.
A court has established it in a final judgment.
Established in a final court judgment. It covers only what the court found, not every later interpretation.
Evidence status: Documented. Supported by contemporaneous documents, institutional reports or independent studies that corroborate one another.Supported by contemporaneous documents, institutional reports or independent studies that corroborate one another.
Independent documents and reports support it.
Supported by contemporaneous documents, institutional reports or independent studies that corroborate one another.
Evidence status: Personal testimony. An account by a witness or participant. Valuable as lived experience; factual details are compared with other sources.An account by a witness or participant. Valuable as lived experience; factual details are compared with other sources.
An account from someone who lived through it.
An account by a witness or participant. Valuable as lived experience; factual details are compared with other sources.
Evidence status: Disputed. Serious sources give different versions, figures or interpretations. The positions and their reasons are set out.Serious sources give different versions, figures or interpretations. The positions and their reasons are set out.
Sources disagree; every position is shown.
Serious sources give different versions, figures or interpretations. The positions and their reasons are set out.
Evidence status: Historical interpretation. Analysis or assessment by researchers: an argued reading of the sources, not a single fact.Analysis or assessment by researchers: an argued reading of the sources, not a single fact.
An assessment by scholars, not a single fact.
Analysis or assessment by researchers: an argued reading of the sources, not a single fact.
Symbols
Each label has its own shape — square, circle, half circle, diamond, triangle — so it can be told apart without colour. Hover over or focus a label for its explanation.
Remembrance
Names are not numbers.
Behind every figure is a life, a name and a family that remembers. We do not publish lists of victims that have not been checked: we send you to the projects that documented the names with an open method, and we are preparing to take in those lists with permission and after checking.
Memorial profiles based on the cited sources. Lists of victims are published only by the projects that documented them with a public methodology.
Photo: Mooonswimmer (përdorues i Wikimedia Commons); memoriali: Ilir Blakçori · Fotoja: 6 dhjetor 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 (foto); liria e panoramës sipas ligjit të Kosovës për të drejtën e autorit
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