Former Kosovo president Hashim Thaçi has been sentenced to 25 years in prison by an international court in The Hague, according to the Guardian. The court found him criminally responsible for war crimes.

The charges relate to the violent break from Serbia during the 1990s, a period marked by conflict as Kosovo moved to separate from Serbian control. The Guardian reported the sentence as it happened on 16 September 2026.

Thaçi, a prominent figure in Kosovo’s political history who went on to serve as the country’s president, now faces one of the most significant sentences handed down over crimes tied to that era.

The Guardian’s live coverage of the verdict ran alongside other European developments on the same day, including remarks from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the state of the continent’s economy.

In those remarks, von der Leyen said ‘kickstarting Europe’s economy is our number one priority,’ arguing that Europe needs to tap into its large market, industries and services. She described the single market as too fragmented and called for further reform, with the aim of completing it by the end of next year.

Von der Leyen also framed a wider political challenge for the bloc, asking whether Europeans want to ‘rally around our European idea that together we can decide our own destiny’ or ‘let our democracies be undermined by the proxies and puppets of authoritarians.’ She said that whether the threat came from ultra-nationalists, anti-Europeans, or Russian interference and disinformation, ‘the names may be different, but their goal is the same.’