Croatia slams UN acquittal of Serbian ultranationalist leader
Croatia’s prime minister has slammed the "shameful" acquittal of Serb ultra-nationalist politician Vojislav Seselj over war crimes he was accused of having committed during the Balkan wars.
Tihomir Oreskovic on Thursday said the verdict marked a defeat for The Hague court and the prosecution.
Earlier in the day, the court panel, comprised of three judges, found Seselj, 61, not guilty on all charges of war crimes related to the wars in the 1990s. UN prosecutors had charged the former Serbian leader with crimes including persecution, murder and torture and had demanded a 28-year sentence.
“Following this verdict, Vojislav Seselj is now a free man,” Presiding Judge Jean-Claude Antonetti said at a hearing in The Hague, reiterating that there was not enough evidence that could link Seselj to the crimes committed during the war.
The ruling sparked clear joy in Serbia but outrage in Bosnia and Croatia. Seselj himself, speaking in Belgrade, hailed the decision as “the only possible one from the legal aspect.”
The chief prosecutor of the UN court, Serge Brammertz, expressed dismay at the ruling, saying he almost certainly will appeal.
The Yugoslav war crimes court’s chief prosecutor also said the victims of crimes committed in the Balkan wars will be disappointed after Seselj was acquitted.
The shock verdict has delivered a boost to Seselj’s anti-EU Serbian Radical Party ahead of April elections. He had been accused of stoking ethnic hatred with his fiery rhetoric at the outset of the 1990s wars that followed the collapse of Yugoslavia. The conflict cost 130,000 lives.
In an apparent gesture meant to denounce crimes committed during the war, Oreskovic and other officials paid a visit on Thursday to Vukovar in eastern Croatia where they laid wreaths in memory of those who died in the 1991 battle for the city.
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