ICTY Approves Funding for Vojislav Seselj Defence

The Appellate Chamber of the Hague Tribunal has approved funding for the payment of Vojislav Seselj’s Defence.

On the basis of this decision, the Defence of Vojislav Seselj, former President of the Serbian Radical Party, SRS, might receive several thousand Euros. Seselj serves as his own defence at his trial, receiving support from legal advisors.

The second instance Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, rejected an appeal filed by the Registrar’s Office and upheld the Trial Chamber’s ruling that the costs of Seselj’s defence, who is on trial for crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia, should be covered by the court.

In October 2010, the Trial Chamber ordered the Tribunal’s Secretariat to provide Seselj with financial support amounting to 50 percent of the amount usually paid to “indictees whose financial situation is bad” until the end of the trial. The support may amount to several thousand Euros.

The Registrar’s Office appealed the decision, claiming that the Trial Chamber was not competent to make the decision on financing of Seselj’s Defence. However, the Appellate Chamber considers that chambers “always have to take care of all issues that affect the fair and expeditious conduct of trials”.

“Considering the fact that this issue has not been resolved since October 2003 and the fact that the Trial Chamber expressed its concern that the issue influences the fair trial, as well as the fact that Seselj is representing himself in this case, the Appellate Chamber considers that the Registrar had to undertake all it could in order to solve the issue in a fair way,” the decision says.

The Registrar considers that, by making the decision to pay “up to 50 percent of the amount paid to indictees in difficult financial situations to Seselj’s Defence, the Trial Chamber made “a big mistake”, considering the fact that Seselj “continuously refuses to cooperate”.

The Hague Prosecution charges Seselj with persecution, murder, torture, deportation, beating, and the deliberate destruction of non-Serb homes and religious buildings in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia from 1991 to 1993.

The trial of Seselj began in late 2007. He first appeared before the Trial Chamber in February 2003, after having surrendered.

In 2006 Seselj asked the Registrar to cover the costs related to the preparation of his defence in the amount of $6.3 million, but the request was rejected. He then filed an appeal with the Trial Chamber.

As indicated in the Appellate Chamber’s decision, the decision on payment of his Defence is not “a final decision by the Trial Chamber, but a temporary measure” that will be in effect until the Chamber has received a complete set of information for assessing the indictee’s financial situation.

D.Dž.