THE HAGUE, Netherlands-A prosecutor at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal said he had "overwhelmingly proved" that Kosovo's former prime minister and two other former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters were guilty of murder, torture, rape and persecution of Serb civilians and called for them to be imprisoned for 25 years.

A defense lawyer countered that there was no evidence of former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj being involved in any of the crimes. The defense continues closing statements Tuesday.

Presenting the prosecution's closing arguments at the trial of Haradinaj, Idriz Balaj and Lahi Brahimaj, prosecutor David Re said Monday that at least 40 civilians, mostly Serbs, were murdered in 1998 in a region of Kosovo controlled by Haradinaj.

The killings, "could not have happened without Haradinaj's knowledge or his complicity," Re said.

Prosecutors "overwhelmingly proved the guilt of the three accused ... of the crimes charged," he said.

But Haradinaj's British lawyer, Ben Emmerson, said prosecutors had failed to link Haradinaj to the crimes.

"The prosecution has called no reliable evidence at all of the personal participation of Ramush Haradinaj in any of the counts alleged in the indictment," Emmerson said.

He also rejected Re's assertion that Haradinaj was responsible for the crimes as a commander.

"There is no reliable evidence that Mr. Haradinaj authorized, condoned or acquiesced in any of the crimes in the indictment," he said.

Haradinaj was a KLA commander who turned to politics after NATO air strikes against Serbia ended the Kosovo conflict in 1999. He served briefly as prime minister before quitting and turning himself in to the tribunal after he was indicted in 2005.

Haradinaj, Balaj and Brahimaj are charged with a total of 37 counts of atrocities against Serbs and their suspected supporters in Kosovo in 1998 as the KLA fought Serb forces for control of the breakaway province.

Emmerson's closing statement Tuesday was to be followed by lawyers for Balaj and Brahimaj, who also will argue that prosecutors did not present enough evidence to convict any of the men and to call for their immediate acquittal.

In an unusual move, none of the three defendants called any defense witnesses when prosecutors completed their case last year. Judges are likely to take several weeks to consider their verdicts.

Prosecutors called nearly 100 witnesses, but also complained that their case was repeatedly hampered by intimidation of witnesses, some of whom refused to testify.

Last month, Kosovo's Culture Minister Astrit Haracija said investigators from the tribunal had questioned him several times and accused him of attempting to dissuade a protected witness from testifying against Haradinaj. Haracija denied the accusations.

Haradinaj is charged as the KLA military chief in the Dukagjini region of Kosovo and Re said his authority in the area was unchallenged.

"As one witness said, 'God in Heaven, Haradinaj on Earth,'" Re said.

He said the pattern of crimes committed in the region Haradinaj controlled was no coincidence.

"There are too many bodies of too many similar people for it to have happened by chance," Re told the judges.

As well as aiming to ethnically cleanse the region of Serbs, the KLA also was punishing civilians suspected of collaborating with Serb forces in Belgrade's violent crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.

"The KLA had a long-standing policy of attacking Serb civilians and those it considered (were) cooperating with the Serb forces," Re said.