In July of 1997 Serb judges at the District Court of Priština sentenced Thaci to 10 years of prison in absentia, accused to have committed criminal acts of terrorism It is because of this that on 11th July 1997 Thaci and his Drenica unit went into hiding in the woodlands in Drenica, although they continued to often visit Albania and Switzerland, not remaining in Kosovo in hiding. During 90's judges in Kosovo courts were entirely Serbs and most of them loyal to Slobodan Milosevic. In February of 1998 the government in Belgrade headed by Slobodan Milosevic issued an arrest warrant under the condemnation for having ambushed and attacked patrolling Serbian policemen.
 
 
 In March 1999 Hashim Thaçi was promoted into a political leader of the KLA and as such participated at the Rambouillet negotiations as the leader of the Kosovar Albanian team. At present, he leads the major opposition political party in Kosovo and is a leading member of the Kosovo team in the internationally-mediated process of negotiations for the final status of Kosovo.
 
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