More than two years after acquitting the former prime minister of Kosovo of murder, rape and torture, appeals judges at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Wednesday ordered him to be retried because the intimidation of witnesses had invalidated his trial and produced 'a miscarriage of justice.' The ruling against Ramush Haradinaj threatened to aggravate already mounting political tensions between Kosovo and Serbia on the eve of a separate advisory ruling on Thursday by the International Court of Justice on Kosovo's legal status. It also drew an immediate reaction from Kosovo, where Haradinaj is seen as a hero and a freedom fighter as a former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which fought with NATO support for Kosovo's independence from Serbia. Blerim Shala, Haradinaj's deputy in the opposition Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, said the decision to retry Haradinaj in The Hague was 'very bad news' for Kosovo and its citizens. In Serbia, where the acquittal of Haradinaj has often been cited with disdain, the judgment was welcomed by Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic. Serbs have complained that only one other trial at the tribunal has dealt with violence against Serbs by ethnic Albanians during the Kosovo war. In April 2008, Haradinaj was acquitted for lack of evidence on a series of charges relating to crimes said to have been carried out by men under his command in 1998. But the appeals tribunal, in a decision that was two years in the making, said the original trial had failed 'to take adequate measures to secure the testimony of certain witnesses,' according to a statement on the tribunal's website. The appeals judges said that in light of 'the serious witness intimidation that formed the context of the trial,' the tribunal erred in acquitting Haradinaj in 2008. The ruling added that this 'error undermined the fairness of the proceedings and resulted in a miscarriage of justice.' No date was set for the retrial of Haradinaj, who was arrested in Kosovo on Tuesday and taken to The Hague. Two other former rebel commanders, Idriz Balaj and Lahi Brahimaj, who had stood trial with him, will also be retried. Prosecutors have not said how many planned witnesses withdrew. But the appellate panel focused on two 'crucial witnesses' who repeatedly refused to testify and whose direct evidence, the appeals judges said, might have made an important difference. 