Vol. 8 Issue 7 - Public International Law & Policy Group

The government committee for cooperating with The Hague tribunal said in a statement that
the suspension will strengthen the perception among Serbs that the court is biased.
Judges at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal voted Wednesday to suspend Seselj's trial after
the prosecution said its case was being undermined by witness intimidation.
The decision plunged the long-running case against one of the U.N. court's most senior
suspects into legal limbo.
The Serbian committee said that it has no knowledge of the witness intimidation and that the
tribunal has not notified it about the allegations. It called on the tribunal to wrap up the trial
"in a reasonable timeframe."
Seselj surrendered to the tribunal in 2003 and has pleaded not guilty to charges of using hatelaced
speech to incite atrocities by Serb forces in Bosnia and Croatia in the 1990s. He is
leader of the large, right-wing Serbian Radical Party.
Seselj's trial started in 2006 but was almost immediately suspended because he was on a
hunger strike. The case got under way a year later in November 2007.
Seselj could get a maximum life sentence if convicted on charges of murder, persecution,
inhumane treatment and wanton destruction of property, including religious buildings.
After the suspension, Seselj demanded to be released and compensated for spending six years
in jail.
Serbian minister predicts Mladic's arrest this year
Agence France Presse, 2/15/09
A Serbian minister said he was confident that fugitive war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic
would be captured this year, in remarks published Sunday that marked a departure from past
government statements.
"It would be a big surprise if this job (Mladic's arrest) was not accomplished over the course
of this year," Rasim Ljajic, the minister charged with cooperation with the UN war crimes
tribunal for ex-Yugoslavia, told the Blic newspaper.
"I can't reveal to what extent we are nearer or farther from Mladic, but we certainly have
more arguments to be optimistic over these last months," he said, adding the "amount of
information on Mladic is increasing."
Ljajic's remarks differ from past declarations by Serb authorities, who generally claim
Belgrade is doing its best to arrest Mladic whose whereabouts are unknown.
The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has
indicted Mladic for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.