THE HAGUE, Feb 26 (Hina)- The Serbian radicals' chief, Vojislav Seselj, made his first appearance on Wednesday before the Hague-based UN war crimes Tribunal where he should have entered s plea of guilty or not guilty. This procedure
is usually quite brief however, Seselj's appearance turned into a long court session after he requested the charges be read in their entirety including all their supplements.
THE HAGUE, Feb 26 (Hina)- The Serbian radicals' chief, Vojislav
Seselj, made his first appearance on Wednesday before the Hague-
based UN war crimes Tribunal where he should have entered s plea of
guilty or not guilty. This procedure is usually quite brief
however, Seselj's appearance turned into a long court session after
he requested the charges be read in their entirety including all
their supplements. #L#
At the end of the session he used a possibility of asking for
entering the plea within next 30 days.
"I shell enter the plea within 30 days, if the prosecution sends me
all the materials without terminological ambiguities in one
month," Seselj, who behaved theatrically, said referring to
translation of some terms into the Croatian language
At the beginning of the court session Seselj said that he had
decided that he would not seek the assistance of a defence counsel
but would defend himself, adding that he could later ask for
assistance or legal advice but that nobody would represent him in
the court.
Seselj is a full-time professor at the Belgrade Law School, and
Judge Wolfgang Schomburg referred to Seselj as Dr. The indictee
turned down suggestions by the judge that regardless of his own
knowledge in law he should take an attorney due to the influence of
British legal tradition in the proceedings.
Seselj requested that the court supply him with documents relevant
to his defence and kept by the Hague Tribunal. He requested that the
documents be given to him exclusively in Serbian.
During the trial he lodged several objections to the translation
stating that he did not understand Croatian and the terminology for
certain words which sound differently in Serbian.
Seselj has been in custody in the Hague since Monday, February 24.
According to his indictment released on February 14, he is charged
on eight counts of crimes against humanity and six counts of
violation of customs and law of war as well as of participating in
the criminal endeavours masterminded by Slobodan Milosevic.
According to the charges, the aim of those criminal actions was to
forcefully eradicate the Croat, Bosnian and other non-Serb
majority populations from one-third of Croatia's territory and the
major part of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Vojvodina so that those
ethnically cleansed areas might be seceded to a greater Serbia.
(hina) sp ms