03.04.07 - ICTR/ICTY - AN ACCUSED OF THE HAGUE DEMANDS FOR SERBIAN TRANSLATION OF THE ICTR CASE LAW

The Hague, 3 April 2007 (FH) – On Wednesday, Mr. Vojislav Seslj, accused of crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), asked for the translation of the judgements rendered by the International Criminal tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) into Serbian. During a status conference on 4 April this Serbian ultranationalist politician, accused of having created a militia which committed crimes in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina between 1991 and 1995, held that it was “the duty of the Registrar to hand over the judgements rendered by the Tribunal for Rwanda”, specifying that the links between the two Tribunals, which have a common Appeal Chamber, justified his request. Being detained in the ICTY prison in The Hague for more than four years after his voluntary surrender on 24 February 2003, Vojislav Seselj had asked several times for the translation of the judgement rendered in the Media case against Ferdinand Nahimana, Hassan Ngeze and Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza. The French translation of this judgement rendered on 3 December 2003 became public in 2006. No other translation seems to be pending. The appeal judgement, whose hearing occurred last January, is awaited for next October. Referring to the ICTR activities concerning the prosecution of propaganda, Vojislav Seselj alleged that “new crimes were invented in [his] case” by the Prosecutor like “speeches calling to hatred, something which does not exist in International law”. Famous in the countries of former Yugoslavia for his numerous provocations - particularly brandishing a colt during an hearing of the Parliament in Serbia – the Accused asks for extensive means to defend himself, arguing with the complexity of his case. “Some of my passionate speeches are supposed to have incited to kill, others to rape”, he said, advancing the view that he should be defended by Jacques Vergès or Noam Chomsky. Vojislav Seselj is still the President of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), which is very powerful in Belgrade. During the opening of his trial in October - the proceedings were cancelled since - he had started a hunger strike in order to protest against the appointment of a Defence counsel. This hunger strike became a theme of his campaign for the legislative elections led in Belgrade in December. SM/PB/CV © Hirondelle News Agency