Political Director of KLA (1994–1999) Minister of Foreign Affairs (2014–2016) Deputy Prime Minister (2014–2016) Premiership Elections President of Kosovo Elections Hashim Thaçi (Albanian pronunciation: [hä'ʃɪm 'θɑ:t͡ɕɪ] ⓘ; born 24 April 1968) is a Kosovar Albanian politician who was the president of Kosovo from April 2016 until his resignation on 5 November 2020 to face a war crimes tribunal on charges of crimes against humanity.

[11][12] As a young man, Thaçi was part of a group committed to overthrowing Yugoslavia's government, which was financed and supported by Enver Hoxha, the former dictator of Albania.

[15] Thaçi (nom de guerre "Gjarpëri" − The Snake) was responsible for securing financial means and armaments, and training recruits in Albania to be dispatched to Kosovo.

[citation needed] On 11 July 1997, Thaçi was tried in absentia and convicted by the District Court in Pristina for terrorism associated with his activities in the KLA, and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

[citation needed] Many Yugoslav forces were killed and their artiellry and vehicles damaged after they were ambushed by KLA insurgents led by Adem Jashari.

He moved quickly to consolidate power, unilaterally naming himself prime minister within a provisional government and allegedly ordering the assassination of the leaders of rival armed factions.

A near monopoly on the means of force, based on the absorption of the KLA into the KPC, allowed the Democratic Party of Kosovo to seize control of the machinery of government at the municipal level.

The BBC said at the time, "The tumbling reputation of the former KLA was to have a disastrous effect on the PDK because of the perceived overlap between its political leadership and post-KLA organised crime.

"[28] A 2008 analysis of organised crime in Kosovo prepared by the German intelligence service BND and a confidential report contracted by the German military, the Bundeswehr, accuse Thaçi, Ramush Haradinaj, and Xhavit Haliti, the majority leader of the Kosovo parliament, of far-reaching involvement in organised crime.

The BND writes: "The key players (including Haliti, Haradinaj, and Thaçi) are intimately involved in inter-linkages between politics, business, and organised crime structures in Kosovo.

[29] According to the 8 March 2016 issue of the French newspaper Le Figaro, Thaçi is likely to be charged by the ICTY for a wide range of atrocities, including organs trafficking.

[30] Hashim Thaci had encountered other accusations such as the involvement in the lucrative heroin trade in the 1990s when officers of the Kosovo Liberation Army and their backers were moving staggering amounts of narcotics through an underworld network into Central Europe.

[32] A report to the Council of Europe, written by Dick Marty, issued on 15 December 2010[33] states that Hacim Thaçi was the leader of the "Drenica Group" in charge of trafficking organs taken from Serbian prisoners.

[citation needed] BBC news reported having seen a draft of the Council of Europe document, and asserts that it names "Hashim Thaci, Kosovo's current Prime Minister and wartime political leader of the KLA, 27 times in as many pages".

[39] On 24 April 2020, the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor's Office located in The Hague filed a ten-count Indictment for the Court’s consideration, charging Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli and others for crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, enforced disappearance of persons, persecution, and torture.

He stated his intention to declare independence without delay on 10 December, the date set by the United Nations for the end of negotiations with Serbia.

Luxembourg's Jean Asselborn and Sweden's Carl Bildt urged the PDK not to make any hasty moves, while the EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana stressed the importance of proper preparations prior to formal independence.

After EU talks on Kosovo in London on 19 November 2007, the UK's Europe minister, Jim Murphy, said independence without foreign support could isolate the breakaway province.

[50] In January 2018, Thaçi said that Kosovo would have supported U.S. President Trump's decision to relocate the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which would have made it the only Muslim-majority nation to do so.

But Thaçi told the Albanian newspaper Express that if his country was handed full membership of the global body, it would vote "all the time" with the U.S., even on the resolution motioned last month to protest Trump's decision.

[54] On 24 April 2020, the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor's Office located in The Hague filed a ten-count Indictment for the Court’s consideration, charging Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli and others for crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, enforced disappearance of persons, persecution, and torture.