The ICTY warrant for the arrest of Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj is non-existent following the Tribunal's verdict acquitting him of all charges, and he is now a free man, says Sasa Obradovic, the head of the Serbian legal team at the ICTY.
The ICTY warrant for the arrest of Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj is non-existent following the Tribunal's verdict acquitting him of all charges, and he is now a free man, says Sasa Obradovic, the head of the Serbian legal team at the ICTY.
Obradovic told Tanjug that he personally did not expect an acquittal considering the course of the Seselj trial, as well as the fact that a member of the trial chamber had been replaced during the proceedings.
“However, I am not surprised by the trial chamber's arguments for such a decision because our legal team presented the same arguments in the trial on the lawsuit against Croatia,” Obradovic said from The Hague.
Earlier on Thursday, the ICTY acquitted Seselj on all nine counts of an indictment for using hate speech for aiding and abetting war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and expulsions of Vojvodina Croats.
Judge Flavia Lattanzi appended a dissenting opinion on eight counts.
Seselj spent nearly 12 years in detention at the ICTY after surrendering and departing for The Hague voluntarily in February 2003 and was provisionally released for medical treatment in November 2014.
Meanwhile, the ICTY requested that Serbia arrest and extradite Seselj, but no action was taken on the request.