Ramush Haradinaj

Ramush Haradinaj ( Albanian pronunciation: [ɾamuʃ haɾadinaj]; born 3 July 1968) is a Kosovo Albanian politician who served as prime minister of Kosovo from 2004 to 2005 and from 2017 to 2020. He was the leader of the AAK party from its founding in 2000 until May 2026, and is a former officer and leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

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 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.