Ramush Haradinaj

"Even if the existence of such common plan were established, which is not the finding of the Chamber, there is nothing in the evidence to indicate that Ramush Haradinaj or Idriz Balaj may have been involved in any such common plan. On the contrary, the evidence establishes that when Ramush Haradinaj found out about the detention and mistreatment of Skender Kuçi, he went to Jabllanicë/Jablanica to speak to Nazmi Brahimaj regarding Skender Kuçi’s release, telling him that “no such thing should happen anymore because this is damaging our cause”. When Witness 3 was brought to Ramush Haradinaj after his escape from Jabllanicë/Jablanica and subsequent apprehension by Lahi Brahimaj, Ramush Haradinaj offered food and accommodation to Witness 3 and released him to his family. No credible evidence has been presented by the Prosecution to establish that Ramush Haradinaj was even aware of the crimes committed at the KLA compound in Jabllanicë/Jablanica."

On 26 November 2019, an earthquake struck Albania. As outgoing Prime Minister, Haradinaj allocated a sum of €500,000 from Kosovo to Albania for the relief effort. On Friday, Haradinaj visited Durrës to survey the damage and expressed Kosovan commitment to relief efforts.

On 19 July 2019, Haradinaj resigned after being summoned for questioning by the Specialist Prosecutor's Office in The Hague. He said that he "could not be Kosovo's prime minister and a suspect at the same time". Similar scenarios occurred in April 2008, where he was acquitted by the ICTY due to "lack of proof", and in November 2012 by the UN tribunal.

In 2018, Kosovo president Hashim Thaçi and Serb president Aleksandar Vučić were supportive of a land-swap between Kosovo and Serbia and Haradinaj stated that any change of the Kosovo border with Serbia would trigger and lead to war.

Following the elections in Kosovo in June 2017, Haradinaj was elected Prime Minister of Kosovo on 9 September 2017 as leader of the PANA coalition (PDK-AAK-Nisma-AKR) which also includes Kosovo's ethnic minorities.

On 5 January 2017 Haradinaj was arrested on a Serbian arrest warrant by French border police upon his arrival at EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg on a flight from Pristina. Serbian authorities urged France to extradite Haradinaj urgently, citing that he "personally took part in the torture, murder, and rape of civilians." The director of the Serbian Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Marko Đurić said that he was "surprised that Serbia is criticized for something while a criminal like this is free." He added that: "Serbia is sending out a warning that it does not accept fake justice, according to which killings and crimes are allowed if they're in the interest of great powers. As France acts on Serbia's warrants, so we will act on theirs." Serbian Justice Minister, Nela Kuburović, said that: "The entire international community is under an obligation to prosecute war crimes suspects."

On 27 April 2017, a French court turned down a Serbian request to extradite Ramush Haradinaj and released him.

Following the 11 June 2017 elections, Haradinaj was elected as the Prime Minister of Kosovo on 9 September 2017, with 61 votes for and 1 abstention after a long political crisis. The rest of the 58 MPs boycotted the vote. His government consisted of a coalition, named the PANA Coalition.

In June 2015 Haradinaj was arrested by Slovene police but was released after two days following diplomatic pressure.

On 10 November 2012 Albanian President Bujar Nishani decorated Haradinaj with the Skanderbeg's Order.

On November 29, 2012, Haradinaj was acquitted a second time.This time, due to the extreme diligence of the court and of the parties there was no allegation of witness intimidation. Instead the judges found that not only was there no evidence to convict Mr. Haradinaj, the Court held that the evidence established that he had acted to prevent criminal behaviour where he could.

The Serbian war crimes prosecutor disagreed with the ICTY. He claimed that potential ICTY witnesses had been murdered in 2011. The Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor, however, is not connected with the ICTY in any capacity whatsoever. Instead, he is a Serbian political appointee elected by the Serbian National Assembly who is charged with prosecuting war crimes in Serbia.

The second trial began on August 18, 2011 in front of a second Trial Chamber made up of three different judges. Haradinaj was represented again by Ben Emmerson Q.C, Mr. Rodney Dixon Q.C. and Andrew Strong. The Prosecution called 56 witnesses against Haradinaj and again Haradinaj called no defense witness.

In February 2009 the Ugandan Rebel Group "Allied Democratic Forces", a Muslim group, asked Haradinaj to mediate peace talks with the central government in Kampala.

In 2009, The Trial, a feature-length documentary on Haradinaj's trial at the ICTY was produced and released. The film premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh in 2009.

Following the dissolution of Yugoslavia Haradinaj was the KLA's 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 (ICTY) 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.

Haradinaj served 100 days as Prime Minister in 2005 before being indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), at The Hague. The indictment alleges that Haradinaj, as a commander of the KLA, committed crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war between March and September 1998, the alleged purpose of which was to exert control over territory, targeting both Serb, Albanian, and Romani civilians. He was acquitted on 3 April 2008, because of lack of convincing evidence.

On 25 April 2008, the ICTY officially opened indictments against Astrit Haraqija and his councilor Bajrush Morina for contempt of court in Haradinaj's case. On July 23, 2009 Astrit Haraqija was acquitted of all charges by the Appeals Chamber. The Court sentenced Bajrush Morina to three months imprisonment for attempting to obstruct a witness from testifying. In rendering its sentence the court acknowledged that there were no aggravating factors that should increase the sentence, The sentence did have mitigating factors, however. These included the fact that the witness Morina was convicted of intimidating stated that the conversation occurred in a "friendly atmosphere", that he never felt intimidated once felt threatened or intimidated, and that Bajrush Morina apologized to the witness immediately after speaking to him and before he was arrested.

On 26 February 2007 Haradinaj was flown back to Hague so that the trial could proceed. In the previous days he held meetings with Kosovo's President Fatmir Sejdiu, Prime Minister Agim Çeku, the head of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, Joachim Rücker, and various diplomatic offices. At a news conference he urged the public to remain calm and was steadfast in his belief that the trial would result in a full acquittal.

The trial, which was enforced by Carla Del Ponte, began on 5 March 2007 and Haradinaj's defence team was led by Queen's Counsel Ben Emmerson, an international human rights lawyer, who had supporting counsel in Rodney Dixon, also of Matrix Chambers of London. The legal defence team as a whole was coordinated by Irish political consultant and financier Michael O'Reilly. At the opening of proceedings, Carla Del Ponte pointed to the problems of the accuser. The intimidation of witnesses was a major problem in the investigation. She claimed that it was difficult to find witnesses who were willing to testify not just to the prosecutors, but also for the tribunal. "The difficulty in Kosovo was that no one helped us, neither the UN administration nor NATO."

On 20 July 2007, Ramush Haradinaj's application for provisional release during the summer court recess was denied. He was granted a second exceptional provisional release over the Christmas court recess. The trial chamber rendered its decision on 3 April 2008; not guilty. Defenders of Haradinaj, Balaj and Lahi Brahimaj have not taken a single witness of the defence to the stand considering that unnecessary. The prosecution was unable to bring to the courtroom three planned witnesses. One of them was committed to a mental health institution at the time he was called to testify. Another, Shefqet Kabashi, refused to testify citing the prosecution's failure to live up to the conditions set for his testimony. Haradinaj's full acquittal, however, was palled by whispers that witnesses had been intimidated. In fact, during the first trial two witnesses failed to attend and it was feared their evidence could have been determinative to the outcome.

Kujtim Berisha, was killed on 18 February 2007 in a drunk driving car accident in Podgorica, Montenegro. This accident was thoroughly investigated by Montenegrin authorities who found that the perpetrator was a 67-year-old Montenegrin Serb named Aleksandar Ristović. Ristović drove his car into Berisha and two other men while under the influence of alcohol. The Montenegrin daily Vijesti states that police "confirmed that at the moment of accident Ristović was drunk—driving at a very high speed".

The ICTY Tribunal confirmed this noting: "The (ICTY) tribunal noted that Kujtim Berisha was "'the only person [who died] who was planned to be called as a witness in the Haradinaj et al. trial.' He died in a 2007 car accident in Podgorica. Montenegrin investigators found 'no evidence that the accident was staged'".

When the ICTY indictment was issued in March 2005, Haradinaj chose to step down immediately from his position as Prime Minister. The following day he travelled voluntarily to The Hague where he submitted himself to the custody of the court and remained for two months until he was granted provisional release pending trial. The head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) during this time, Søren Jessen-Petersen, welcomed the decision Haradinaj to face the tribunal voluntarily, praised his work and described Haradinaj as a "close partner and friend", regardless Western intelligence reports that Haradinaj was a key figure in the range between organized crime and politics. Citing Mr. Haradinaj's compliance with the ICTY and the fact that he posed no risk of flight and no risk towards witnesses, the Trial Chamber of the ICTY extended his provisional release and allowed him to wait for trial in his hometown of Prishtina. Further, the Appeals Chamber later granted Haradinaj the unprecedented right for an indictee to engage in public political activity. Such activity was, however, subject to the approval of UNMIK. This step was unprecedented in the history of international criminal law and seen as a reflection of the fact that Mr. Haradinaj voluntarily submitted himself to the court. Critics (and the prosecution) however, argued that this went too far. The Prosecution argued that although Mr. Haradinaj posed no threat to witnesses, his mere presence in Kosovo could have a “chilling” effect on whether witnesses would testify.

Following the Kosovo elections of October 2004, Haradinaj entered into coalition talks with the LDK, led by Dr. Rugova, then President of Kosovo. Rugova formed a government and nominated Haradinaj as Prime Minister. In the Kosovo Assembly, Haradinaj's candidacy for Prime Minister won the support of 72 members out of 120, with only three opposing.

Haradinaj has five brothers. Two of them, Luan Haradinaj and Shkelzën Haradinaj, were killed as members of the KLA during the fights with the Serbian security forces. In December 2002, Haradinaj's brother Daut was sentenced by a UN court in Kosovo for his involvement in the kidnapping and murder of four Kosovo Albanians, who belonged to the FARK, an armed formation of Kosovo Albanians and rivals of the KLA, to five years in prison. Enver Haradinaj, another brother of Ramush, was assassinated in April 2005 in a drive-by shootout in Kosovo. According to the UN security forces, there was a confrontation between rival Kosovo-Albanian clans. The youngest brother Frashër was still a student as of 2007 and worked in the service of the now former Provisional Institutions of Self-Government. His other brother Daut Haradinaj is today also a politician.

He retired from the KPC on 11 April 2000, and announced that he was entering politics. With support from the former communist leader Mahmut Bakalli, Haradinaj founded the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), on 29 April 2000. He was elected president of the party.

In spring 2000, Ramush Haradinaj was involved in a fist fight with Russian soldiers at a KFOR checkpoint, and later that year was involved in a shootout in Strellc with members of the Musaj family (members of the FARK), which was covered up by US officials of Camp Bondsteel. He was injured, and sent by a US helicopter to Germany, while the location, long from US area of responsibility, was cleansed of evidence.

After demilitarization of the KLA following NATO's entry into Kosovo in 1999, the KLA was transformed into the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC). In this new force, Haradinaj was appointed as a deputy commander, under Agim Çeku.

In February 1998, the conflict in Kosovo erupted. According to the ICTY indictment against Fatmir Limaj, Haradin Bala and Isak Musliu, between 28 February and 5 March, Serb forces launched an offensive against KLA-held villages of Likošane, Cirez, and Prekaze.

After successfully repelling the Serbian attack Haradinaj gained a leadership position in the KLA in Western Kosovo. By May 1998 he was regarded as commander of Glodjane and surrounding villages, and by June 1998 he became commander of the Dukagjin Operational Zone (in Metohija). Western Kosovo's proximity to Albania provided a corridor through which the KLA could procure weapons. Haradinaj established himself as a commander during heavy fighting in his area. As war broke out in Western Kosovo during the Spring of 1998 Serbian and Albanian families fled the area for fear of getting caught up in the intense hostilities breaking out.

In September 1998, some months later, the bodies of 39 people were found near Glodjane. The victims were local people, of both Albanian and Serbian ethnicities. The discovery of their bodies led to public accusations of war crimes against Haradinaj and his group.

In 1989, using a false name, Haradinaj emigrated to Leysin, Switzerland. He worked there for eight years as a construction worker, security guard, and a bouncer in a nightclub. As the Soviet Union dealt with new internal challenges, movements for independence began to form among many of the ethnicities of the Balkans and other states. In Switzerland, Haradinaj joined the Albanian nationalist organization "People's Movement of Kosovo", from which the KLA originated; this organization wanted to separate Kosovo from Yugoslavia through armed struggle. In 1996, he went through sabotage training in Albania, then participated in the establishment of KLA bases in Kukës and Tropojë. According to media outlets, he organized the smuggle of arms into Kosovo; in one of those operations he was ambushed by border patrols, during which he was wounded and his brother Luan was killed. In 1998, Haradinaj returned to his hometown of Glođane (now Deçan) in Kosovo.

Ramush Haradinaj (Albanian pronunciation: [ɾamuʃ haɾadinaj] ; born 3 July 1968) is a Kosovar politician, leader of the AAK party, and was the 3rd Prime Minister of Kosovo. He is a former officer and leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), and previously served as Prime Minister of Kosovo between 2004 and 2005.

Haradinaj was born on 3 July 1968, as the second of nine children, in the village of Glođane, near Dečani (Albanian: Deçan), in Kosovo, then part of Yugoslavia. His paternal descent is from Berishë in northern Albania, around the city of Pukë. He spent his youth in his native village with his parents and siblings, and completed primary school in Rznić (Albanian: Irzniq) and secondary school in Dečani and Gjakova. After graduating from high school in 1987, he did his mandatory military service in the Yugoslav People's Army, where he was later promoted to platoon commander. After the Kosovo War, Haradinaj attended law school at the University of Pristina. Haradinaj also earned a master's degree in business from the American University in Kosovo, which is associated with the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.