Hague Tribunal Orders Serbia to Extradite Radicals

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia said on Tuesday that Serbia was obliged to cooperate in the contempt of court case against Radical Party members Petar Jojic, Jovo Ostojic and Vjerica Radeta, who are accused of threatening witnesses in the case against their leader Vojislav Seselj.

They are also accused of blackmailing protected witnesses and offering them bribes of 500 euros not to testify at Seselj’s trial.

The Belgrade authorities refused to arrest the three Radicals after the Tribunal issued a warrant in January 2015.

The Higher Court in Belgrade then ruled in May this year that conditions for their extradition had not been met and that Serbia was obliged to cooperate in cases against war crime defendants only.

But the Tribunal’s trial chamber said on Tuesday that Serbia was obliged to cooperate in cases of contempt of court as well.

“The decision by the Higher Court in Belgrade is in contradiction to the years of Serbia’s collaboration with the Tribunal, which also included arrests and extradition of defendants accused of contempt of court,” it said.

Article 29 of the Tribunal’s statute, which the Serbian court quoted, stipulates that countries are obliged to cooperate in war crime cases, but it also says they must cooperate “in relation to all requests for assistance” sent to them by the Hague court.

The trial chamber insisted that prosecutions for contempt of court were “a key element of the Tribunal’s capability” to prosecute perpetrators of war crimes.

“Hence, the lack of cooperation in cases covering contempt of court has a direct influence on the Tribunal’s ability to fulfil its mandate,” it said.

It also insisted that “Serbia cannot call upon its domestic laws to justify its failure to fulfil its international obligations”.

If Serbian laws are not in line with those international obligations, Serbia must amend them urgently, it added.

Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj was acquitted in March this year of crimes against humanity including murder, persecution and expulsions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia.

Appeals against the verdict are now under way.