FILE - In this Thursday, March 2, 2017 file photo, Ramush Haradinaj, a former Kosovo prime minister, appears in court in Colmar. Albania’s president has granted citizenship to the former prime minister of Kosovo. Nishani on Monday, April 24, 2017 issued a decree granting Albanian citizenship to Haradinaj and his wife Anita. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, File) (The Associated Press)
TIRANA, Albania – Albania's president has granted citizenship to the former prime minister of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj.
Bujar Nishani on Monday issued a decree granting Albanian citizenship to Haradinaj and his wife Anita.
Many Kosovars have been granted Albanian citizenship in order to profit from the country's visa-free regime with the European Union's Schengen member countries. Kosovo is the only country in Western Balkans whose citizens still need a visa to visit the Schengen zone.
Haradinaj is in France on judicial supervision awaiting a court decision on whether he will be extradited to Serbia.
He was detained in January following arrest warrants from Serbia on war crimes charges.
Haradinaj, a guerrilla fighter in Kosovo's 1998-1999 war for independence from Serbia, has been cleared of war crimes charges by a U.N. tribunal.
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