Ljajic: Government to comment on Seselj by Wednesday

BELGRADE - Rasim Ljajic, president of the Council for Cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), stated on Thursday that the Serbian government will comment on the ICTY order regarding the provisional release of Vojislav Seselj by Wednesday, adding that the Tribunal has created a problem and is now searching for a way to export it to Serbia.

“This case is a precedent on several grounds - the man has been detained for 11 and a half years to date and no ruling has been reached, the process has been completed and no verdict has been declared for two years, the trial took nearly four years to start and now the precedents are continuing,” he said for TV B92.

This is the first time that the Trial Chamber is initiating this kind of process and is setting the conditions under which a indictee can be released, while that very indictee does not by any means want the government's guarantees, said Ljajic.

Seselj previously informed the Trial Chamber that if granted provisional release, he would not accept any limitations excluding not leaving the territory of Serbia.

The Tribunal has to confess openly that it does not know how to deal with Seselj, it has made a problem and is now searching for a way to export it to Serbia, Ljajic said.

Ljajic said that he will soon leave the office of the president of the Council for Cooperation with the ICTY since the Office has been closed down and transferred to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice.

“I have been performing these duties for 10 years, and this is long enough,” Ljajic said.

Photo Tanjug/N. Milosevic (Archive)