Milica StojanovicBelgradeBIRNMay 21, 202618:31In her latest report, UN tribunal monitor said Serbian authorities have not responded to frequent questions about the status of the contempt-of-court case against ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj transferred to Serbia for processing in 2024.
Vojislav Seselj and his supporters in front of Belgrade Higher Court in 2019. Photo: BIRN.
Serbia is ignoring questions about the status of the case against Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj and four other party members who are charged with contempt of court, the Hague-based International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals’ monitor, Dagmara Albrecht, said in her latest report on Thursday.
The International Residual Mechanism transferred the contempt-of-court case case against Seselj and his followers to Serbia in 2024, saying that conditions were adequate for it to be processed there, and appointed Albrecht to monitor progress.
Albrecht noted that during first three months of 2026 she “requested information regarding the status of the pending preliminary matter in the Seselj et al. case, which the … [Serbian] Ministry of Justice had undertaken to provide to me after our meeting in November 2025.
“I have not received any response to these e-mails,” she wrote.
In late April, Albrecht said, she contacted the Ministry of Justice and Prosecutor’s Office for War Crimes, and did so again on May 18.
“I also informed the Ministry of Justice and the Prosecutor’s Office of Serbia of my intention to conduct a monitoring mission to Serbia and requested a meeting with their representatives to discuss the status of the referred case,” Albrecht noted.
The case against Seselj and his followers relates to his 15-year trial in The Hague for wartime crimes.
The indictment charges them with having “knowingly and wilfully interfered with the administration of justice; disclosed information in violation of court orders, including orders for the protection of witnesses; and failed to comply, without just excuse, with court orders to cease and desist from the publication of confidential information”.
Seselj already has a conviction for inciting crimes with his wartime speeches. The UN war crimes tribunal sentenced him to ten years in prison in April 2018. He did not serve any jail time, however, because of the time he had spent in custody prior to the verdict.
He has been charged with contempt of court several times by the Hague-based tribunal. In 2011, he was convicted of revealing information about witnesses in a book he authored.
In 2012, he and Radical Party colleagues Vjerica Radeta and Petar Jojic were charged with pressurising witnesses in his trial using threats, blackmail and bribes to change their statements or not testify. This case is still ongoing in The Hague after the tribunal declined to transfer these proceedings to Serbia.
Source link: balkaninsight.com
