France Arrests Former Kosovo PM Sought By Serbia

PARIS, Jan 5 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 05th Jan, 2017 ) : A former prime minister of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj, was arrested in France on Wednesday in response to an international arrest warrant for war crimes filed by Serbia.

Haradinaj -- who has been twice tried and acquitted -- is a former leader of paramilitaries who fought for Kosovo, a predominantly ethnic Albanian province of Serbia, to gain independence.

He was arrested on his arrival from the Kosovo capital Pristina at Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg airport, located near the Swiss and German borders, sources close to the French investigation said.

The French judicial authorities will now examine the Serbian request, they said. In Pristina, Kosovo's justice minister Dhurata Hoxha, confirmed Haradinaj, 48, had been detained. "We will take every step to ensure that Haradinaj is released as soon as possible," Hoxha said.