The Last Trial of the 20th Century: Hashim Thaçi in the Dock

The riveting political courtroom drama that no one is watching

Hashim Thaçi–the former prime minister of Kosovo, the head of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), “Kosovo’s George Washington”, “the snake” as his comrades called him–is on trial in The Hague. For the past five years, he has been in detention at the “Kosovo Special Chambers”, a hybrid Kosovo-international court that was set up in the city of peace and justice because back home in Kosovo, bad things can happen to witnesses. The prosecution has alleged that the leadership of the KLA, including Thaçi, bear “command responsibility” for war crimes committed by members of the guerilla force during the Kosovo War in 1998-99. For those blissfully unaware, “command responsibility” is a legal doctrine that allows commanders to be held liable for war crimes committed by their subordinates. The defense’s job, then, has been to make Thaçi look like an idiot, a weakling, incompetent, and/or too young at the time of the conflict to have been a real authority. (Thaçi was about 30 during the war). The trial is now in its final phase, and in its concluding weeks has become an engrossing piece of Trump-era courtroom drama, with a spectacular cast of A-list political actors flown in to give testimony for the defense.