[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website; JURIST news archive] Thursday acquitted [press release; judgment summary] Former Macedonian Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski of charges related to the deaths of seven ethnic Albanian civilians, but sentenced his former bodyguard to 12 years in prison. Johan Tarculovski was accused of directing the attack that led to the deaths of civilians in the village of Ljuboten [HRW backgrounder] during a 2001 conflict between local ethnic Albanian guerrillas and Macedonian government security forces. As interior minister, Boskovski was accused of having command and control over the armed forces at the time of the alleged massacre. AP has more.

Boskovski and Tarculovski, the only Macedonians indicted by the ICTY, were surrendered to the ICTY in 2005 after being charged with war crimes [JURIST reports]. Boskovski has also been in prison for charges relating to the murder of seven immigrants while he was the interior minister in 2002. Both went to trial [JURIST report] before the ICTY last year.