Serbia to Challenge Extradition of Radicals to Hague

Serbian Justice Minister Nela Kuburovic said on Friday that it was “hypocritical” of the UN court to say that witnesses did not dare to appear in court in Belgrade and that therefore the two Serbian Radical Party officials had to be tried in The Hague.

“Serbia has the right to appeal. It will refute the decision,” Kuburovic said, Serbia’s Happy TV station reported.

Earlier this month, the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals revoked its decision to transfer the contempt of court proceedings against Petar Jojic and Vjerica Radeta to Serbia, arguing that witnesses in the case said they did not trust the Serbian judiciary to ensure their safety if they testified.

“The refusal by witnesses to give statements in Serbia would significantly impede the prosecution’s presentation of its case and delay the proceedings,” the UN court’s decision said.

Serbian Radical Party officials Jojic and Radeta are charged with contempt of the Hague court by interfering with witnesses at the trial of their party leader, Vojislav Seselj.

They are accused of threatening, blackmailing and bribing witnesses to either change their testimonies or to not testify at all.

Seselj was convicted of war crimes in April 2018 and sentenced to ten years in prison, but will serve no jail time because of the years he spent in custody prior to sentencing. He is an MP in the Serbian parliament, and refused to return to The Hague for the verdict in his trial.

The Serbian authorities have been locked in a dispute with the UN tribunal for several years over the arrest and extradition of the two Radical Party politicians.

The tribunal initially submitted a warrant ordering their arrest in January 2015.

But in May 2016, the war crimes chamber of Belgrade Higher Court ruled that there were no legal grounds for extraditing the Radicals because Serbia’s Law on Cooperation with the Hague Tribunal obliged Belgrade to extradite people charged with war crimes, but not those charged with contempt of court.

In October 2016, the UN tribunal issued an international warrant for the arrest of Jojic and Radeta, saying that Serbia had refused several times to act on its order to arrest and extradite them.

Interpol then issued ‘red notices’ for the arrest of Jojic and Radeta.

The tribunal has also reported Serbia to the UN Security Council several times for non-cooperation in the case.

It then made the decision to allow the proceedings to be transferred to Serbia, but this was revoked earlier this month after witnesses said they had concerns about their security, privacy and the safety of their families.

A third Radical Party member who was also accused in the case, Jovo Ostojic, died in Serbia in 2017.