Trial against Professor Vojislav Seselj in the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia: some issues on the International Law theory and practice

Abstract

After the assassination of President Slobodan Milosevic the only “accused” of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia who defends not himself but Serbian nation is Doctor Vojislav Seselj. Dr. Seselj voluntary came to the prison of ICTY in February 2003 — just a week after the indictment was made public. Since that time — for more than 4 and half years — ICTY still could not start his trial. Such a great delay with the start of the trial violates the fundamental norms of international human rights law, including norms of European Convention on Human Rights, but it has an explanation. The indictment against V. Seselj like indictment against S. Milosevic is completely false. Accordingly, the only way to «prove» such an indictment is the policy of the delay of the start of the trial or the presentation of false witnesses. Official reasons for this delay announced by ICTY officials are openly illegal or has no sense. Some of them are: rejection of translation of all documents into Serbian language and the “non-availability of free courtrooms”. In 2007 several dozens of witnesses reported that they received threats from ICTY officials in order to make them giving false testimony against V. Seselj. These threats included not only the start of criminal proceedings but also killings. The so-called Seselj case even on the pre-trial stage is one of the sharpest examples of the illegal activity of the Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.