Prosecutors seek 45-year prison terms for Thaci and three commanders accused of wartime abuses.
The Kosovo war crimes tribunal is scheduled to deliver verdicts on Wednesday in the case against former President Hashim Thaci and several former Kosovo Liberation Army commanders accused of murder, torture and other crimes during Kosovo’s conflict with Serbia.
Thaci, 58, faces multiple counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, torture and persecution. The other defendants are former KLA commanders Jakup Krasniqi, Rexhep Selimi and Kadri Veseli. The ethnically Albanian group fought Serbian forces during the 1998-99 war.
Thaci and the other former senior commanders deny the charges.
Prosecutors have requested 45-year prison sentences for each defendant.
The case remains highly divisive in Kosovo, where Thaci is still admired by many ethnic Albanians for his role in the independence struggle.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of people gathered in the capital, Pristina, demanding the defendants’ acquittal. The protest was the latest in a series of rallies held since the trial began. Portraits of the four former KLA fighters have appeared throughout the city alongside a large digital clock counting down to the verdicts.
One banner read: “In the name of the people, declare them innocent.”
Thaci’s lawyers argued in February that no evidence directly connects him to the alleged crimes.
“There are no orders in the record from Thaci to perpetrators of crimes. There are no reports from perpetrators of crimes to Thaci,” lawyer Luka Misetic told judges at the Kosovo tribunal.
Most of the estimated 13,000 people killed in the Kosovo war were ethnic Albanians. The fighting ended after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign against Serbian forces. Around one million ethnic Albanian Kosovars were displaced from their homes.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move Belgrade does not recognise. Relations remain tense despite years of European Union-mediated negotiations.
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