Ramush Haradinaj

Who is Ramush Haradinaj?

Ramush Haradinaj is a Kosovo Albanian politician, a former officer and leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army, and the former prime minister of Republic of Kosovo. He leads the AAK party.

Following the dissolution of Yugoslavia Haradinaj was the KLA/UÇK commander for western Kosovo. Following the conflict, Haradinaj went into politics but soon resigned after becoming one of the KLA commanders charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia with war crimes and crimes against humanity against Serbs, Romani and Albanians between March and September 1998 during the Kosovo War. He was acquitted of all charges on 3 April 2008. The prosecution appealed against the acquittal and argued that it was not given enough time to secure the testimony of two critical witnesses. In 2010 the Appeals Chamber agreed and ordered a partial retrial in The Hague, Netherlands. The re-trial took just over two years and on 29 November 2012, Haradinaj and his co-defendant were acquitted for a second time on all charges.