The German media outlet "Cicero" has published an extensive analysis of the verdict of the Special Court in The Hague against former KLA leaders, raising questions in particular about the 25-year prison sentence of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi.
In the analysis published on September 20, author Alexander Rhotert notes that the defendants have been acquitted of charges of crimes against humanity, while considering the criticism coming from Kosovo regarding the severity of the sentences understandable.
“Cicero” places the case in the context of some of the trials conducted by international war crimes tribunals in the former Yugoslavia. The analysis mentions cases such as that of Biljana Plavšić, sentenced to 11 years in prison, Vojislav Šešelj to 10 years, Jovica Stanišić to 15 years, and former Serbian police general Vlastimir Đorđević, sentenced to 18 years in prison.
In the case of Đorđević, "Cicero" recalls that the sentence was related to crimes committed against Kosovo Albanian civilians.
In this context, the author compares Thaçi's sentence with other sentences given for serious crimes during the wars in the former Yugoslavia and argues that the sentence of 25 years of imprisonment seems significantly higher than in some of the cases compared.
According to the analysis, the comparison between Thaçi's case and Đorđević's raises at least one question, although the author admits that these are two different courts and cases with different legal circumstances.
"Cicero" also dwells on another important element of the verdict, emphasizing that the Court did not find that the convicts intended the mass deportation or murder of non-Albanians and that the prosecution failed to prove such an intention.
The German media outlet's analysis thus places the verdict against the former KLA leaders in a broader debate on the proportionality of sentences and the way war crimes cases in the former Yugoslavia have been legally handled.
In Kosovo, the verdict against former KLA leaders has caused numerous reactions, while comparisons with the decisions of international tribunals for former Serbian and Bosniak officials have been part of the public debate on the fairness of the process and the severity of the sentences.
