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ICTY convicts Seselj of contempt for revealing witness identities

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The trial chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Friday convicted Serbian nationalist Volislav Seselj of contempt and sentenced him to 15 months in prison for authoring a book revealing pertinent information about several key witnesses. Seselj, leader of the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party, is currently on trial in the ICTY, charged with three counts of crimes against humanity and six counts of war crimes. He is accused of establishing rogue paramilitary units affiliated with the SRS, which are believed to have massacred and otherwise persecuted Croats and other non-Serbs during the Balkan conflict. Seselj was charged with contempt in January. Seselj's criminal trial was indefinitely suspended in February over concerns of witness intimidation. Volislav Seselj photo courtesy ICTYThis is the second contempt charge brought in the ICTY's trial of Seselj. In September, key witness Ljubisa Petkovic was found guilty of contempt for refusing to testify against Seselj. Last August, the ICTY suspended Seselj's trial pending an appellate ruling on whether the defendant could represent himself. The ICTY had previously stripped Seselj of his right to defend himself after he failed to appear in court, despite an earlier appeals court ruling that he could represent himself provided he did not engage in courtroom behavior that "substantially obstruct the proper and expeditious proceedings in his case."

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on July 24, 2009 (boomark / email).