Former President Thaci celebrates his birthday today

The 53rd birthday, former President Hashim Thaci, will find him far from his family, friends and partners. The only friend to have this opportunity to wish for this special day closer will be former Prime Minister Kadri Wessel, who is being held with him at The Hague's Pre-burging Centre.

Thaci has been held in custody since November 5th last year. On the same day, he had resigned from the position of president of the Republic of Kosovo and had been transferred to The Hague.

The reason for this had been the establishment of the indictment by Specialised Chambers in The Hague. The Act against him was raised to his 52nd birthday.

Besides Thaci, the indictment has also been filed with Kadri Veselini, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi.

Works weighing on Thaci, Veselin, Selimi and Krasniqi have to do with war crimes, illegal or arbitrary detention, cruel treatment, torture and unlawful murder, and crimes against humanity of imprisonment, other inhumane acts, torture, unlawful murder, forced extinction of persons and persecution, which, according to the Special Chambers, were committed between March 1998 and September 1999.

The Specialised Chambers claim that for these crimes, Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselini, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi hold criminal responsibility as individuals on the basis of various forms of criminal responsibility presented in the indictment, “that were carried out in the context of an international armed conflict in Kosovo and in the framework of a widespread and systematic attack against suspected persons as opponents of KLA<1>.

The Specialised Chambers and Specialised Prosecutor's Office, also known as the Special Court, investigate the alleged crimes of members of the former Kosovo Liberation Army committed against ethnic minorities and political rivals from January 1998 to December 2000.

These alleged crimes are mentioned in a 2011 Council of Europe report, author of which is Swiss senator Dick Marty.