Hague Prosecution Urges Seseljs Immediate Return to Custody
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The prosecution on Monday filed a motion to the international courts appeals chamber saying that there was no reason to delay Serbian Radical Party leader Seseljs recall to the Hague Tribunals detention unit.
The appeals chamber on March 30 ordered the trial chamber to immediately issue an order revoking Seseljs provisional release.
However that order has still not been issued because the trial chamber has requested additional documentation about Seseljs health problems.
The nationalist party chief, who is on trial for wartime crimes in Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia, is suffering from cancer. He was given temporary release last November on humanitarian grounds.
The prosecution however urged the appeals chamber to act immediately to ensure his return.
There is no justification for this delay in the implementation of the appeals chambers unequivocal order. Seseljs health is irrelevant to the implementation of the decision. Furthermore, Seseljs health condition cannot prevent implementation of the decision as his health need not suffer any prejudice from his return to The Hague, the prosecution said.
Seselj is being recalled to custody for breaching the terms of his provisional release after he stated several times that he would not return to the court for the verdict in his trial.
Since returning to Belgrade in November, he has led nationalist protests and made a series of hardline statements that have angered war victims.
The Serbian government meanwhile said that it would only make a decision about what to do about sending Seselj back after it received the decision from the trial chamber.
Seselj had been in custody since 2003, when he voluntarily surrendered.
The verdict in his case was scheduled for October 2013, but was postponed after one of the judges in the trial was removed for alleged bias.
The new judge is expected to take until at least the end of June 2015 to familiarise himself with details of the case, causing yet another delay in the marathon trial.
