The indictment for the crimes in the village of Ljuboten – that Ljube Boskoski and Johan Tarculovski are charged with – is the last indictment issued by the ICTY Office of the Prosecutor

Former Macedonian minister of the interior has been charged with unlawful attack on Albanian civilians in the village of Ljuboten near Skopje, on 10 and 12 August 2001. The UN Detention Unit in The Hague currently houses 61 accused, 14 have been provisionally released and 15 are at large.

Former Macedonian interior minister thinks that “in his case there is no case” and pleads “absolutely innocent” with regard to the accusations of murder, wanton destruction and cruel treatment of Albanian civilians in the village of Ljuboten

Former policeman from Skopje and bodyguard of Macedonian president pleads not guilty to murder and abuse of Albanian civilians and the destruction of the village of Ljuboten in August 2001

The first and only ICTY trial for the crimes committed against Albanian civilians in Macedonia begins on 16 April 2007

The trial of Ljube Boskoski and Johan Tarculovski will begin on Monday, 16 April, with the opening statement of the prosecution. The trial will then be adjourned for three weeks. Boskoski and Tarculovski are charged with the murder of seven persons, burning down of fourteen houses and abuse of several hundred civilians in the Macedonian village of Ljuboten on 12 August 2001. The prosecution will call its first witnesses on 7 May 2007

The prosecution delivers its opening statement in three parts at the start of the Ljuboten trial. There was armed conflict in Macedonia, the prosecution notes. Ljube Boskoski has command responsibility and Johan Tarculovski has individual responsibility for the attack on Ljuboten village on 12 August 2001. First witnesses in this case will be called on 7 May 2007

Johan Tarculovski’s defense counsel put it to witness Nazim Bushi that the National Liberation Army, a Macedonian Albanian formation, was a terrorist organization. Bushi disagreed. When international officials described the NLA members as ‘terrorists, thugs and killers’, they did so because they misunderstood the term ‘terrorism’, Bushi says

In the cross-examination, defense counsel for Boskoski and Tarculovski accuse the German journalist Hutch of ‘fabricating facts’. In the re-examination, the prosecutor tries to rehabilitate the witness who claims to have witnessed the attack on Ljuboten

In her opening statement, Ljube Boskoski’s defense counsel notes that the accused ‘transparently and impartially’ took ‘all the necessary and reasonable measures to find and punish the perpetrators’ of the crimes in the village of Ljuboten on 12 August 2001. In her view, the prosecution case ‘is set up the wrong way; the prosecution is knocking on the wrong door’

What did Ljube Boskoski do to “find out as soon as possible the truth about the events in the village of Ljuboten”? The defense of former Macedonian interior minister began its case with the testimony of Sofija Galeva who was given the task to collect all Interior Ministry documents related to the events in Ljuboten on 12 August 2001 and the investigation that followed

Prosecution implies Sofia Galeva, former advisor in the office of the interior minister Ljube Boskoski, gathered materials about the Ljuboten case in order to defend the reputation of the minister who was under flak in the media and from international NGO Human Rights Watch for his alleged responsibility for the murders of Albanian civilians in the village of Ljuboten

The investigating judge was told people had been killed in the village of Ljuboten, but he didn't go to the crime scene because of compromised security and darkness, says Petre Stojanovski

Through Branislav Dimitrov’s evidence, the defense of Ljube Boskoski points to the inconsistencies in the testimony of Franz Josef Hutsch. In June 2007, German journalist claimed that on 12 August 2001 he stayed at the Dal Met Fu hotel in Skopje. According to hotel director Dimitrov, Hutsch stayed in hotel from 22 to 31 August 2001

In his opening statement, Johan Tarculovski's defense contests the existence of armed conflict in Macedonia in 2001. According to the defense, the attack on the village of Ljuboten – Tarculovski is on trial for it – was a ‘legitimate action by the Macedonian security forces’ aimed against terrorists in the village. The order was issued by the then Macedonian president Trajkovski

Expert witness called by Johan Tarculovski’s defense contests the existence of armed conflict between the National Liberation Army of the Macedonian Albanians and the security forces in 2001 in Macedonia. Blagoja Markovski contends that this was an ‘internal conflict’, a consequence of ‘terrorist and separatist tendencies’ of armed individuals and groups

The expert witness testifying in the defense of Johan Tarculovski yesterday compared the way in which the National Liberation Army of the Macedonian Albanians was organized with mercenary activities. Today he went on to conclude that the ‘al-Qaeda did the same things as the NLA but nobody calls them an armed force, but a terrorist organization’

With the testimony of the last witness called by Johan Tarculovski’s defense, all the evidence is now in at the trial for the crimes Macedonian security forces committed in the village of Ljuboten on 12 August 2001. Closing arguments are scheduled for the first week in May

In the closing argument at the trial of the Ljuboten case, the prosecution calls for a sentence of twelve years in prison for Ljube Boskoski and fifteen years for Johan Tarculovski. The crime in Ljuboten is an example of ’abuse of authority and sadistic motive’, the prosecution contends

In the closing arguments at the trial for the murder of seven Macedonian Albanians, burning of fourteen houses and cruel treatment of some hundred villagers of Ljuboten, the defense counsel of Ljube Boskoski and Johan Tarculovski call for their acquittal

Johan Tarculovski, former bodyguard of the Macedonian president, was convicted of the murder, wanton destruction and inhumane treatment and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Ljube Boskoski, former Macedonian police minister, was found not guilty of failing to investigate the crimes committed by his subordinates and to punish them

At the appellate hearing, the prosecution called for a conviction of the former Macedonian interior minister Ljube Boskoski for his failure to investigate and punish crimes his subordinates committed in the village of Ljuboten. Johan Tarculovski’s defense contends that Tarculovski’s conviction and 12-year sentence were ‘not based on evidence’

The Appeals Chamber confirmed the Trial Chamber’s judgment sentencing Macedonian policeman Johan Tarculovski to 12 years and acquitting former interior minister Ljube Boskoski. In a separate opinion, Judge Liu noted that “the fact that a superior can effectively do nothing and still be acquitted of command responsibility is acutely troubling”