Serb Ultra-Nationalist Seselj Sues U.N. Court
Serbian ultra-nationalist Vojislav Seselj has filed a two-million-euro suit against the U.N.'s Yugoslav war crimes tribunal for "violations of elementary human rights", the court said Monday.
"On account of the violations of elementary human rights during his nine-year detention, Professor Vojislav Seselj seeks damages from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the amount of two million euros," Seselj said in his claim, filed before judges on January 12.
It included an amount of 500,000 euros ($656,000) for allegedly delaying proceedings against the 57-year-old leader of the Serbian Radical Party, who has been in detention since surrendering to the ICTY on February 23, 2003.
After nine years behind bars at the ICTY's detention unit in The Hague, "the end of detention is nowhere in sight for Dr. Seselj," he protested, according to the document released Monday.
The ultra-nationalist went on trial in November 2006 and faces nine counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the persecution of Croats, Muslims and other non-Serbs and their expulsion from areas of Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia between 1991 and 1993.
The alleged crimes include persecution, murder, torture and cruel treatment.
Seselj also demanded 400,000 euros as part of the claim as he could not afford to pay the costs of his defense -- including his own plane ticket to The Hague.
This, said Seselj, resulted in an unequal balance between his defense and the prosecutor's office which spent "enormous resources fighting against Dr. Seselj, thereby violating the principle of the equality of arms."
He also complained about being denied access to family, friends and doctors for which he claimed an amount of 200,000 euros.
Seseslj has been suffering health problems and has been hospitalized three times in the past two weeks. His party said that he had had a heart pacemaker fitted.
Seselj, who is still representing himself in the trial, has earned a reputation for angry outbursts in court and often refers to himself as the "main enemy of the ICTY."
Source: Agence France Presse
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