Seselj Testifies in Defence of Karadzic

Karadzic’s Defence announced that Seselj, who is charged with crimes against Croats and Muslims in Croatia, Vojvodina and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period from 1991 to 1993, would testify at this trial. Seselj is currently being held in the Detention Unit in Scheveningen, where he is awaiting the pronouncement of his verdict scheduled for October 30. Karadzic is charged with persecuting Muslims and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, committing genocide in Srebrenica, terrorizing the local population in Sarahevo through artillery and sniper attacks and taking UN “blue helmets” hostage. According to the charges against them, Karadzic and Seselj participated in the same joint criminal enterprise aimed at permanently and forcibly removing the non-Serb population from large territories in Bosnia and Herzegovina and integrating those territories into a united Serbian state. In 2005, Seselj, who has been held in the Tribunal’s Detention Unit since February 2003, when he voluntarily surrendered after the indictment against him had been published, testified in defence of Slobodan Milosevic, former Serbian President, who, according to the charges against him, led the criminal enterprise in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. In addition to Seselj, Karadzic announced that Zdravko Tolimir, retired Republika Srpska Army, VRS, general, and Lieutenant Colonel Ljubisa Beara would testify in his defence in June. Tolimir and Beara were previously sentenced, under first instance verdicts pronounced by the Tribunal, to life imprisonment for genocide in Srebrenica.As they did not want to testify voluntarily due to the fact that the processes against them have still not been completed, the Trial Chamber issued a special warrant, ordering Tolimir and Beara to testify. Announcing that he would appeal the mentioned warrant, Tolimir requested that its execution be postponed.