The Trial Chamber with Judge Orie presiding ordered Ramush Haradinaj to return to the UN Detention Unit on 26 February 2007. The pre-trial conference in his case is scheduled for 1 March 2007


The Trial Chamber today issued an order to Ramush Haradinaj to return to the UN Detention Unit in Scheveningen on Monday, 26 February. Haradinaj was released pending trial on 6 June 2005. The same order tasks UNMIK to bring the accused under escort to the Amsterdam Airport where he will be turned over to the Dutch authorities.

The trial of Ramush Haradinaj, Idriz Balaj and Lahi Brahrimaj is set to begin on 5 March 2007. The pretrial conference will be held on 1 March, when the three accused will re-enter their plea on the 21 counts of "the revised second amended indictment". The Chamber has accepted it as "the operational indictment" in this case.

The presiding judge in the Trial Chamber trying the former KLA commanders is Dutch judge Alphons Orie. The other members of the Chamber are two ad litem judges: Ole Bjorn Stole from Norway and Frank Hoepfel from Austria.

Ramush Haradinaj, Idiz Balaj and Rahim Brahimaj are charged with the "intimidation, kidnapping, detention, beatings, torture and murder" of Serbian civilians, and of Albanians and Roma suspected of collaboration with the Serbian authorities. According to the indictment, those crimes were committed between March and September 1998. Their purpose was to establish and strengthen the "total KLA control over the Dukagjin operative zone".

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