UN Tribunal releases two Kosovo fighters found not guilty of war crimes

Two former members of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) were released today from the detention unit of the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, after having been cleared of war crimes during the deadly ethnic fighting in 1998-99 that led the United Nations to take over the administration of the Serbian province.

Fatmir Limaj and Isak Musliu had been charged by Carla Del Ponte, prosecutor for the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), on 24 January 2003 in connection with crimes at the camp in 1998 including the torture and murder of a number of Serb, non-Albanian and Albanian detainees.

The Tribunal found a third former KLA member, Haradin Bala, guilty of those charges and sentenced him to 13 years in prison.