Seselj to rally in village cited in his Hague verdict

Opposition SRS leader Vojislav Seselj says the police have no grounds to ban his party's rally on May 6 in the village of Hrtkovci, northwestern Serbia.

Seselj told reporters on Thursday that the political gathering has been registered with the authorities and will be "peaceful."

"Just as the gathering in 1992 was peaceful, there were no incidents then. There's no reason to ban it," he told reporters during a conference in the Serbian Assembly, when asked to comment on demands to ban the rally scheduled to take place on the 26th anniversary of the original one, after which ethnic Croats started leaving the village.

This was the reason the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) found Seselj guilty on appeal and sentenced him to ten years in prison - which he already served while in detention of the MICT predecessor, the ICTY.

Asked whether he expects his mandate as a member of the National Assembly to be revoked because of the ruling, Seselj said he saw no reason for that, considering that the sentence has already been served - "and it doesn't concern me."

He also said it remained to be seen whether any procedures would be launched against him because of Wednesday's incident in the Assembly that prompted a visiting Croatian delegation to cut short their visit, and added, "I believe all Serb patriots and honorable Serbs support what I and Filip Stojanovic did."

Seselj then described in detail the course of the incident, saying that he first attempted to tear up the Croatian flag displayed in front of the Assembly, but failed, to then throw it onto the ground, "and trample on it thoroughly."