Vucic Says Serbia Has No Cause to Rejoice or Grieve Over Thaci Conviction

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has said his country has no reason either to celebrate or to mourn the war crimes conviction of Kosovo's former president, Hashim Thaci, while accusing the court of overlooking crimes committed against ethnic Serb civilians.

Speaking at a press conference in Belgrade, Vucic said the judgment had not taken into account what he described as the most serious allegations in the case. He noted that the defendants were not found guilty on six counts in the indictment concerning the gravest acts of crimes against humanity.

"What's of great importance is that we in this moment have no reason to neither rejoice or to grieve," Vucic said.

The Serbian president went on to argue that the outcome reflected a broader pattern of bias, saying that whether judgments are binding or not, Serbs are always cast as war criminals while others are treated as liberators and heroes.

Thaci was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Wednesday after being found guilty of war crimes committed during Kosovo's 1998-99 war for independence from Serbia. He resigned from office nearly six years ago to face the charges at the European Union-backed Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague.

He was convicted on four counts of war crimes, including murder, torture, cruel treatment and arbitrary detention. Both Thaci and prosecutors, who had sought a stricter sentence, can appeal the ruling.

The verdict angered Thaci's supporters and dealt a heavy blow to a figure once embraced by the West, who was invited to the 1999 peace talks in France and was seen as the leader who could steer Kosovo toward independence.

Thaci stood trial alongside three other former Kosovo Liberation Army leaders who fought Serb forces in the 1998-99 conflict and are widely regarded as national heroes in Kosovo. All four had pleaded not guilty to every charge against them.