Vojislav Seselj Allowed to Miss Trial Verdict

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia said on Wednesday that Seselj does not have to return to The Hague for the verdict on March 31, despite previously insisting that he must go back to the war crimes court to hear the judgement.

It said that it had accepted an argument from the Serbian government that it was not possible to interrupt Seselj’s medical treatment for cancer or continue his treatment in The Hague, so the verdict will be handed down in his absence.

However the court said that Seselj could follow the pronouncement of the verdict via video link from Belgrade.

Seselj has declined to comment on the court’s decision until it is published in Serbian.

This will be the first time that the Tribunal will deliver a verdict in the absence of the defendant.  

Seselj is charged with committing crimes against Croats and Bosniaks in Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1991 to 1993.  

He was allowed to return to Belgrade from detention in The Hague in November 2014 after being granted temporary release on humanitarian grounds to undergo cancer treatment.

Ever since then, he has led nationalist protests and made a series of hardline statements that have angered war victims.

He also refused to return to the court voluntarily for his sentence, daring the Serbian authorities to send him back by force.

He told a press conference in Belgrade on Tuesday that he expects to be convicted of war crimes when the verdict is handed down.

“My sentence will be Draconian, maybe a bit smaller than [Bosnian Serb President Radovan] Karadzic’s,” he said.

He also said he intends to lead his party in the campaign for Serbia’s parliamentary elections next month.

In its closing statement at his trial, the prosecution asked the Tribunal to sentence him to 28 years in prison, while Seselj, who represented himself in court, called for acquittal.