On 21 August 2006, the judges in the case against Vojislav Šešelj ordered that the Accused be assigned defence counsel for the further conduct of his case. The Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) concluded that the restriction of the right of self-representation is prompted by the persistent and wilful disruptive behaviour of the Accused. The Chamber ordered that Vojislav Šešelj participate in the proceedings against him only through his defence counsel and that it will consider permitting his personal involvement on a case-by-case basis if it is in the interest of justice. The Trial Chamber resolved to assign counsel to Vojislav Šešelj effective immediately. The assigned counsel appealed this decision on his behalf.

The Appeals Chamber concluded that the Trial Chamber did not specifically state that Šešelj would lose his right to self-representation as a sanction for his disruptive behaviour. It found that a warning with regard to the possibility of the assignment of counsel needs to be explicit, in the form of an oral or written statement explaining the disruptive behaviour and that, if the behaviour persists, the consequence will be a restriction on the right of the accused to self-representation. The Appeals Chamber reversed the decision in the light of the absence of a specific warning to Šešelj before assigning him counsel, but it also explicitly warned him that if he would persist in obstructing the proper and expeditious proceedings in the case, the Trial Chamber would be justified in promptly assigning him counsel. Šešelj would have the right to be heard with respect to his subsequent behaviour.

As President of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), Vojislav Šešelj was a prominent political figure in the former Yugoslavia during 1991-1995. According to the Indictment, he participated in a joint criminal enterprise whose purpose was the permanent forcible removal of a majority of the Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb populations from approximately one-third of the territory of Croatia, large parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and from parts of Vojvodina, in the Republic of Serbia, in order to make these areas part of a new Serb-dominated state. He is charged on the basis of individual criminal responsibility with eight counts of crimes against humanity and six violations of the laws or customs of war.

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