November 06, 2024 05:28 (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy booked for threatening cop probing into mining case | Supreme Court upholds validity of Uttar Pradesh Madrasa Education Act | Not all private properties are community resources that govt can take over: Supreme Court | Pakistan's Lahore has become world's most polluted city with an AQI of 1900 on Sunday | Indian Army 'successfully completes' patrolling to a key point in Ladakh's Depsang region
UN tribunal acquits Vojislav Seselj of war crimes in the Balkans

UN tribunal acquits Vojislav Seselj of war crimes in the Balkans

| | 01 Apr 2016, 07:31 am
New York, Apr 1 (Just Earth News/IBNS): The United Nations tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on Thursday acquitted Vojislav Seselj of war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with actions committed by the Serbian forces between August 1991 and September 1993.


Seselj was accused of having “directly committed, incited, aided and abetted those crimes and to have been part of their commission through his participation in a joint criminal enterprise,” according to the trial judgement.

He had faced three counts of crimes against humanity, including persecution, deportation and inhumane act of forcible transfer, and six counts of war crimes, which comprise of murder, torture and cruel treatment, and destruction, among others.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) cleared Seselj of all the charges but the decision was not unanimous.

The Majority, led by presiding Judge Jean-Claude Antonetti, found that the Prosecution had failed to prove the existence of a criminal purpose, which is required to convict someone of participation in a joint criminal enterprise.

In her partially dissenting opinion , Judge Fkavua Lattanzi wrote that that the Majority failed to take into consideration the climate of intimidation to which Seselj subjected the witnesses, and claimed that there was “ample evidence” that a joint criminal enterprise existed with the purpose to force the non-Serbs, through the perpetration of crimes, to leave parts of the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

Reacting to the verdict, the Prosecutor in the case, Serge Brammertz told UN Radio Russian that the acquittal would upset some people but please others.

“We see, that the circumstances which led to the creation of the Tribunal, are increasingly viewed with nationalistic and politicized positions,” he said.

The parties have a right to appeal the verdict.

The Court's decision comes one week after the conviction of Radovan Karadžiæ, on charges related to genocide in the area of Srebrenica in 1995, of persecution, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts (forcible transfer), terror, unlawful attacks on civilians and hostage-taking.

Photo: ICTY

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
Related Images
Xi Jinping, Putin in Russia 22 Mar 2023, 02:56 pm
Related Videos