Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday that the French court in Colmar made a political decision to turn down Serbia's extradition request for former Kosovo Prime Minister and ex- Kosovo Liberation Army guerrilla Ramush Haradinaj, who is wanted by Belgrade on war crimes charges.
Belgrade wants to try him for war crimes in connection with his role in the insurgency in its former southern province of Kosovo.
The decision prompted delight among the former prime minister's supporters outside the court as well as in Kosovo's capital, Pristina. Officials said all evidence have been handed over to the French court.
In January, Serbia said it would hit back if France declined to extradite Haradinaj, now a Kosovo opposition politician.
The court in the northeastern town of Colmar said Haradinaj has been released.
A Serbian court has charged Haradinaj with killings, torture and abductions of Serbs, ethnic Albanians and minority Roma people during and after the 1999-1999 war.
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Kosovo Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj said he was grateful to France for handling the case but criticised what he called Serbia's "ill-intended allegations".
Also, pro-government media swiftly described the French court ruling as "shameful".
The broadcaster said it learned that the court then ruled against this "as the consequences of extradition would have been very hard on Haradinaj".
He was Kosovo's premier from December 2004 to March 2005, when he stood down to face war crimes charges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Albanian-majority Kosovo has a population of some 1.8 million.
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