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Kosovo ex-PM Ramush Haradinaj cleared of war crimes | Kosovo ex-PM Ramush Haradinaj cleared of war crimes |
(35 minutes later) | |
A UN war crimes tribunal has cleared former Kosovan Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj of war crimes dating back to 1998, after a retrial in The Hague. | |
Mr Haradinaj and two of his lieutenants from the Kosovo Liberation Army were accused of atrocities against Serb, Albanian and Roma civilians in 1998. | |
But href="http://www.icty.org/x/cases/haradinaj/tjug/en/121129_summary.pdf" >the UN court ruled that the prosecution had not proved the case. | |
He had been cleared of the crimes in 2008, but the verdict was quashed on the grounds of witness intimidation. | |
Mr Haradinaj and co-defendants Idriz Balaj and Lahi Brahimaj were all cleared of the charges. | |
The indictment alleged they had been involved in a joint criminal enterprise to establish KLA control in western Kosovo through detention camps. | |
Ethnic Serbs, and Albanians who were deemed to have collaborated with Serbs, were allegedly tortured and killed, with 39 bodies found. | |
But judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia found there was no evidence to say the three men participated in such a plan. | |
Serb anger | |
Mr Haradinaj is the most senior ethnic Albanian indicted by the ICTY. | |
He has many supporters among the Kosovo Albanian community, and they had said the retrial was based on flimsy evidence. | |
Mr Haradinaj served as prime minister for 100 days in late 2004 and 2005, before he stepped down to deal with his first trial. | |
Crowds in the capital Pristina celebrated his acquittal by letting off fireworks and cheering. | |
Analysts say he is now likely to continue his political career. | |
His face is splashed across vast billboards in Kosovo, accompanied by slogans like "the leader who keeps his word" and "forward with a clean slate". | |
However, he is still considered a war criminal in Belgrade, and an arrest warrant has been issued against him by Serbia's war crimes prosecutor. | |
Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade has enlisted the support of ally Russia to block any move for international recognition. | |
Before the verdict Serbian officials had warned that a not-guilty verdict would "jeopardise negotiations" between the two sides. | |
"Haradinaj's acquittal will distance us from reconciliation," said Oliver Antic, legal adviser to Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic. | |
Many Serbs feel there has been little accountability for crimes committed against them during the wars of the 1990s. |