Former Kosovo PM arrested in Slovenia on Serbian arrest warrant
| Publisher | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| Publication Date | 17 June 2015 |
| Cite as | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Former Kosovo PM arrested in Slovenia on Serbian arrest warrant, 17 June 2015, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/55b5f3d7c.html [accessed 21 May 2023] |
| Comments | All reference to Kosovo should be understood in full compliance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244. |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
June 17, 2015
By RFE/RL's Balkan Service
Ramush Haradinaj, Ramush (file photo)
The leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) party, Ramush Haradinaj, has reportedly been arrested at the airport of Slovenia's capital, Ljubljana, on a Serbian arrest warrant issued in 2006.
In a statement issued after Haradinaj's arrest on June 17, the AAK urged Slovenian authorities to release Haradinaj and allow him to travel to Pristina, saying that Serbia's arrest warrant for Haradinaj was not valid.
A former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army for western Kosovo, Haradinaj served as Kosovo prime minister between December 2004 and March 2005.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia then charged Haradinaj with war crimes during the Kosovo War in 1998.
He was acquitted of all charges in April 2008.
In 2010 the Appeals Chamber ordered a partial retrial in The Hague after prosecutors appealed the acquittal.
In November 2012, Haradinaj was again acquitted on all charges.
Meanwhile, some 1,000 Kosovo Albanians, mostly veterans of the 1990s war with Serbia, protested on June 17 in the capital, Pristina, against the creation of a special court that would handle war crimes allegedly committed by former ethnic Albanian guerrillas.
The new court would be part of the Kosovo judicial system, but sensitive proceedings would be handled abroad.
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