Sešelj, Vojislav fr

Vojislav Šešelj was the president of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) and was a prominent political figure in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) in the time period relevant to the indictment. He is alleged to have propagated a policy of uniting ‘all Serbian lands’ in a homogeneous Serbian state, which he referred to as “Greater Serbia” and which included Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and considerable parts of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is also alleged to have participated in a joint criminal enterprise (JCE) and that the purpose of this JCE was the permanent forcible removal, through the commission of crimes, of a majority of the Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb populations in the aforementioned territories.

He is charged on the basis of individual criminal responsibility with eight counts of crimes against humanity and six counts of violations of the laws or customs of war. The trial commenced on 7 November 2007. On 21 January 2009, Vojislav Šešelj became the first suspect on trial for war crimes to be charged with contempt, with the trial scheduled to commence on 29 May 2009. The trial for war crimes was suspended indefinitely on 11 February 2009 after a majority decision voting on a request for suspension by the prosecution, owing to witness intimidation.

On 24 November 2009, the Chamber granted a motion by the accused for the review of the adjournment decision and ordered that the trial should resume on 12 January 2010.