Ex-Kosovo Premier Pleads Innocent At the Hague

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Kosovo's former prime minister pleaded innocent yesterday at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal to charges of involvement in the murder, rape, and torture of Serbs and suspected Serb collaborators in the province's 1998–99 war.

Ramush Haradinaj is scheduled to go on trial starting Monday along with two other former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters, Idriz Balaj, and Lahi Brahimaj. Prosecutors say all three were part of a criminal plot to drive Serbian forces out of the Western Kosovo region of Dukagjin.

The three sat impassively as Judge Alphons Orie read out 37 war crimes charges against them, including multiple counts of murder, persecution, and torture against each. A conviction on any charge could carry a sentence of up to life in prison.