Ex-Kosovo president to face war crimes tribunal on Monday after stepping down

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers court in The Hague, Netherlands (Mike Corder/AP)

Hashim Thaci, who resigned as Kosovo’s president to face charges including murder, torture and persecution, will make his first courtroom appearance before a judge at a special court in the Netherlands on Monday, the court announced.

Thaci, 52, served as a guerrilla leader during Kosovo’s war for independence from Serbia in the late 1990s, before rising to political prominence in the aftermath of the conflict that killed more than 10,000 people.