Kosovars acquitted again in retrial at Yugoslavia tribunal
Thursday 29 November 2012
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EmailA UN war crimes tribunal today acquitted the former prime minister of Kosovo and two of his Kosovo Liberation Army allies for the second time of murdering and torturing Serbs and their supporters.
It was the court's first ever retrial, ordered after appeals judges said the 2008 acquittal of former PM Ramush Haradinaj and KLA fighter Idriz Balaj and the conviction of KLA commander Lahi Brahimaj was a miscarriage of justice because of widespread intimidation of prosecution witnesses.
In Kosovo's capital Pristina supporters set off fireworks and honked car horns.
But Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic warned it would have serious consequences for EU-brokered negotiations.
Government spokesman Milivoje Mihajlovic called the verdicts "another heavy blow for justice, dialogue and reconciliation in the region," and predicted they would trigger a storm of discontent.
"Haradinaj's acquittal means an amnesty for crimes against Serbs," he said.
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