A tribunal at The Hague has cleared former Kosovan Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj of war crimes for a second time, along with two commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
All three men were first acquitted of charges of torturing and murdering prisoners at KLA camps in 2008, before a partial retrial was announce by the tribunal two years later.
Haradinaj's lawyer, Ben Emmerson QC, said after the verdict,
"This verdict, coming after the longest and most exhaustive criminal process ever undertaken in the history of international criminal law, is a complete vindication of Mr Haradinaj's innocence. It proves beyond the slightest doubt that he was a war hero and not a war criminal".
"It is time for the enemies of a free Kosova to accept the verdict of history. This judgment should silence once and for all those senior officials at the very top of government in Belgrade who have been putting out falsehoods about this case, even in the days running up to the judgment".
"Even to suggest that there was some kind of equivalence between the genocidal policies of the Milosevic regime and the resistance of a people's army seeking liberation and self-determination for the people of Kosova was a travesty from the start.
It was the equivalent of putting the leaders of the French resistance in the dock at Nuremberg alongside the henchmen of Hitler's Third Reich".
Kosovo’s government meanwhile, furious at the dragged out retrial, has called for an investigation into United Nations chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte, releasing a statement saying,
"These powers and privileges were exceeded and abused to the extent that completely unfounded charges were filed."
