UN tribunal acquits Kosovo ex-PM of war crimes

The UN Yugoslav war crimes court on Thursday acquitted Kosovo's ex-prime minister Ramush Haradinaj and two aides in a retrial on charges of murder and torture during the 1990s war of independence from Belgrade. "The chamber finds you not guilty on all counts in the indictment," Judge Bakone Justice Moloto told the Hague-based court, ordering the men released. Haradinaj, 44 and Idriz Balaj, 41, faced six war-crime charges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) of allegedly murdering and torturing Serbs and non-Albanians during Kosovo's brutal 1998-99 war for independence from Belgrade. The third accused, Lahi Brahimaj, 42, faced four counts at the Hague-based tribunal for his role in the fight between independence-seeking ethnic Albanian guerrillas and the Belgrade forces of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.