The former president of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after being found guilty of war crimes.

A hearing at The Hague on Wednesday sentenced the 58-year-old for crimes during Kosovo’s independence war against Serbia in the 1990s, in which more than 10,000 people died.

He was convicted after a three-year trial of crimes including murder, illegal arrests, torture and cruel treatment. A number of other allegations against him were not proven.

Thaci was a co-founder and commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a group that fought for independence. He is regarded as a hero in Kosovo.

He was accused of killing nearly 100 people and of committing other atrocities including enforced disappearances.

Thaci was facing trial alongside three former commanders of the KLA who faced similar charges.

The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was set up in the early 1990s as a militant group of ethnic Albanians, in what was then a province of Serbia, and during the war is alleged to have carried out attacks on the region’s ethnic Serb minority.

Thaci became Kosovo’s first prime minister when it declared independence in 2008. He later became president but resigned in 2020 to face the charges in The Hague.

Thousands of people gathered in Kosovo to watch the verdict on large screens as they were handed down.

In the capital, Pristina, photographs and videos showed people in tears as they learned of the verdict.