Updated

Kosovo prosecutors have accused a senior politician of crimes in connection with two murders during the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

The special prosecutor's office said Friday said that Fatmir Limaj, a former commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army that fought a separatist war against Serbia, failed to prevent the murder of two Albanians in 1998, discover its authors or take the case to the proper institutions to be probed.

In 2005 a U.N. tribunal acquitted Limaj on the war crime charges and in 2012 a Pristina court with international judges cleared him of allegations of torturing and killing Serb detainees during the war.

Limaj, 45, is the leader of the opposition Nisma per Kosoven (Initiative for Kosovo) political party.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, which Serbia has never recognized.