Seselj Decision Slated for May
Tribunal will rule on whether there is evidence to support a conviction.
Seselj Decision Slated for May
Tribunal will rule on whether there is evidence to support a conviction.
Judges will deliver their decision on whether to acquit Serbian nationalist politician Vojislav Seselj at a hearing on May 4, the Hague tribunal announced this week.
The ongoing trial has not yet reached the defence phase, but according to tribunal rules, at the conclusion of the prosecution’s case all defendants may ask judges to enter a verdict of not guilty on one or more counts if the bench finds there is no evidence to support a conviction.
Seselj elected to undergo this procedure – known as 98 bis – and the judges heard lengthy arguments from him and the prosecution at hearings in early March.
The accused, who represents himself and is a trained lawyer, contended that “it’s quite clear there is no evidence whatsoever that could be used as grounds for a conviction”.
The indictment against him was purely political, he said, and a plot by “western powers” who did not want him returning to Belgrade, where he continues to lead the Serbian Radical Party, SRS.
At the same time, however, the indictment and ensuing trial allowed him to become a “significant historical personality”, he added.
“No textbook of international criminal law will be written in the future without mentioning my case,” Seselj said. “What more can a man expect in a modest little life?”
Detained at the tribunal since 2003, Seselj is charged with nine counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity – including murder, torture and forcible transfer – for crimes allegedly carried out in an effort to expel the non-Serb population from parts of Croatia and Bosnia between August 1991 and September 1993. He is accused of giving numerous inflammatory speeches and recruiting a force of volunteers who allegedly murdered, raped and tortured non-Serbs in both Croatia and Bosnia.
Seselj’s trial has endured repeated delays since it officially began in November 2007, a full year after the original trial date was postponed due to the defendant’s hunger strike. In July 2009, Seselj was found guilty of contempt for revealing confidential details about protected witnesses in one of the books he authored. A second contempt trial, on similar charges, began last month.
Rachel Irwin is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.
