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Archive blog · Today in history

Today in history, 18 September: The first-instance judgment in Thaçi et al.

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 recorded event closest to today's date in the archive calendar.

Date of the event
Place
Unknown
Evidence status
Evidence status: Documented. Supported by contemporaneous documents, institutional reports or independent studies that corroborate one another.

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.

The sentences pronounced were 25 years for Thaçi and Krasniqi, 18 years for Veseli and 13 years for Selimi, with credit for time served. The Panel found that the violence amounted to a widespread and systematic attack, but it was not proven to be directed against a civilian population [1].

The judgment concerns four individuals and specific charges. Under the archive's editorial principle, it is not a judgment against the KLA as a whole, the war of liberation or every one of its members. Details and the exact procedural status are in the case tracker.

Full event record, with sources and map

Historical context

The postwar period and legacy

The end of the war did not end the violence, the grief or the search for truth. This period is treated separately from the armed conflict of 1998–1999.

Read the chapter “After the war: justice, the missing and memory”

Sources

  1. [1]Dhomat e Specializuara të Kosovës dhe Zyra e Prokurorit të Specializuar. Summary of Trial Judgment in Specialist Prosecutor v. Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi, and Jakup Krasniqi (KSC-BC-2020-06). 2026-09-16. KSC-BC-2020-06. https://www.scp-ks.org/sites/default/files/public/20260916-SummaryofJudgment-Thaci-et-al-EN.pdf. Accessed 2026-09-16.
  2. [2]Dhomat e Specializuara të Kosovës dhe Zyra e Prokurorit të Specializuar. Hashim Thaçi and co-defendants found guilty of war crimes. 2026-09-16. https://www.scp-ks.org/en/hashim-thaci-and-co-defendants-found-guilty-war-crimes. Accessed 2026-09-16.
  3. [3]Dhomat e Specializuara të Kosovës dhe Zyra e Prokurorit të Specializuar. Specialist Prosecutor v. Hashim Thaçi et al. (KSC-BC-2020-06) — faqja e çështjes. KSC-BC-2020-06. https://www.scp-ks.org/en/cases/hashim-thaci-et-al. Accessed 2026-09-16.

This post was compiled automatically from the archive's verified data and from public media feeds. It contains no AI-generated text. Published: .