The ruling read by presiding judge Iain Bonomy found Milutinovic, president of Serbia from 1997 through 2002, not guilty on five counts. Following the verdict Milutinovic was released in the courtroom.
The panel of three judges found another five high-ranking politicians and military officers guilty and sentenced them to between 15 and 22 years in prison for their part in the forced deportations of some 800,000 ethnic Albanians and a reign of terror which led to the destruction of homes, religious and cultural buildings, as well as murder and rape of civilians.
Ex-deputy premier Nikola Sainovic, 60, and generals Sreten Lukic, 53, and Nebojsa Pavkovic all received 22 years behind bars after being found guilty of murder, persecution, deportation and forced transfer.
Two other generals, Dragoljub Oidanic, 67, and Vladimir Lazarevic, 59, were cleared of murder and persecution but found guilty of forcible transfer and deportation. They were both sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Prosecutors demanded that all six accused receive prison terms from 20 years to life for their crimes; however, the defense pushed for a full acquittal on all crimes.
Prosecutors claimed that all of the accused jointly aimed to change the ethnic make up of Kosovo to give Serbs control of the region.
Milutinovic and the five convicted individuals were all close supporters of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, who in March 2006 died of a heart attack in a UN prison in The Hague.
A total of nine Serbs were accused by the Tribunal's prosecutors for crimes in Kosovo in the late 1990s. Former Serbian interior minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic shot himself on the steps of the parliament building in Belgrade in April 2002. The final case, which started in January, is against a former advisor to the interior minister, Vlastimir Djordjevic.
