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Former Kosovo Leader Acquitted of War Crimes

Posted Apr 4, 08 4:30 AM CDT in World 

(Newser) – The UN's tribunal in the Hague has acquitted a former commander of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army of all charges of war crimes. Ramush Haradinaj, who also briefly served as the breakaway province's prime minister, was cleared of murder, persecution, rape and torture of Kosovo Serb civilians. The verdict threatens to inflame anti-Kosovo sentiment in Serbia, writes the New York Times.

Haradinaj will in all likelihood receive a hero's welcome when he returns to Kosovo as early as tomorrow. But in their ruling the judges decried a pattern of witness intimidation. Of Haradinaj's two co-defendents, one was also acquitted and the other was sentenced to six years in prison for torture and cruel treatment of prisoners.

Sources New York Times, Associated Press

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Kosovars dance in the main street of Decane, as they react to the decision of a U.N. court to acquit Ramush Haradinaj, the former prime minister of Kosovo, in Decane, Kosovo, Thursday, April 3, 2008.   (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)
Former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj awaits his verdict at the courtroom of the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, Thursday, April 3, 2008.   (AP Photo/ Fred Ernst)
Anita Haradinaj, wife of former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, embraces an unknown person outside the courtroom of the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, Thursday, April...   (AP Photo/ Fred Ernst)
Former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, front right, enters the courtroom for his verdict at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague.   (AP Photo/ Fred Ernst)
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Serbia  • Kosovo  • war crimes  • The Hague  • international war crimes tribunal  • Ethnic Serbs


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