diff --git a/koji/__init__.py b/koji/__init__.py
index 3b302b89..9ab87d00 100644
--- a/koji/__init__.py
+++ b/koji/__init__.py
@@ -3307,6 +3307,10 @@ def formatTimeLong(value):
         t = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(value)
     else:
         t = value
+    # return date in local timezone, py 2.6 has tzone as astimezone required parameter
+    # would work simply as t.astimezone() for py 2.7+
+    if t.tzinfo is None:
+        t = t.replace(tzinfo=dateutil.tz.gettz())
     t = t.astimezone(dateutil.tz.gettz())
     return datetime.datetime.strftime(t, '%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S %Z')