ICTY acquits former Kosovo PM of war crimes charges News
ICTY acquits former Kosovo PM of war crimes charges

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website; JURIST news archive] Thursday acquitted [judgment summary; press release] former Kosovo prime minister and Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commander Ramush Haradinaj [BBC profile] of all charges. Haradinaj and his two co-defendants, KLA fighters Idriz Balaj and Lahi Brahimaj [Trial Watch profiles], were charged [JURIST report] with 37 counts of war crimes, including murder, persecution, and rape [amended indictment, PDF]. Balaj was also acquitted of all charges, but Brahimaj was convicted of mistreating a detainee and ordering the mistreatment of another. Brahimaj was sentenced to six years in jail. Reuters has more.

Haradinaj was a senior commander of the KLA, the ethnic Albanian guerrilla force that opposed Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive] during the 1998-1999 Kosovo war [BBC backgrounder]. He was indicted [initial indictment, PDF] by ICTY prosecutors in 2005. In a court appearance with Balaj and Brahimaj last year, he pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to the charges.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Montgomery started racially-integrated bus service after boycott

On December 21, 1956, buses in Montgomery, Alabama, started racially integrated service following federal court rulings ending on-board segregation. Bus boycott leaders Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and Rev. Ralph Abernathy were among the first riders under the new scheme. Learn about the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

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On December 21, 1879, Joseph Stalin was born in Gori, Georgia. In 1922, he became leader of the USSR until his death in 1953. During his time as Soviet dictator, Stalin industrialized his country, which he then led to become one of the world's two superpowers after WWII. Through his infamous purges, show trials and nationwide famines, Stalin also became responsible for millions of deaths.