Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi and three ex-rebel leaders have been sentenced to decades in prison for war crimes, sparking violent demonstrations in the Netherlands and Kosovo. Clashes broke out in The Hague, where Dutch police deployed water cannons to disperse crowds, and in Pristina, where angry protesters hurled stones at the EU mission headquarters. Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti slammed the verdicts against the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) veterans as an “unacceptable injustice” that must be overturned on appeal. Echoing this outrage, President Vjosa Osmani defended the KLA’s historical struggle and criticized the international courts, stating that “Serbia continues to deny the crimes and reward the perpetrators” of the 1990s conflict. Thaçi received a 25-year sentence from the special tribunal, while his co-defendants were handed prison terms ranging from 13 to 25 years.