UN prosecutor appeals acquittal of Kosovo leader Haradinaj

May 2, 2008, 12:17 GMT

The Hague - Chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz launched Friday an appeal against the acquittal by the UN war crimes tribunal of accused Kosovo war criminal Ramush Haradinaj.

In his appeal, Brammertz said The Hague-based Tribunal for War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia had not provided sufficient room for witnesses for the prosecution.

The prosecutor requested that the case be retried by a different chamber of the tribunal.

Haradinaj, Kosovo's former prime minister and ethnic Albanian guerrilla commander, was charged in connection with atrocities committed against Serbs in the 1999 war.

The Hague-based tribunal ruled in early April that there was not enough evidence to convict Haradinaj, 39, but also said key witnesses refused to testify for fear of reprisal.

As one of the top commanders in the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK), Haradinaj had been indicted on 37 counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, torture and rape, targeting minority Serbs with the aim of driving them out of Kosovo.

The three-judge panel dismissed the charges on the grounds of lacking evidence. The trial had been marred by apparent intimidation of witnesses - the two key witnesses eventually refused to testify against the defendants.

One of Haradinaj's co-fighters and co-accused as a part of a criminal enterprise, Idriz Balaj, was also found not guilty, while another, Lahi Brahimaj, was sentenced to six years imprisonment for acts of torture.