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Serb Radical Party leader taken to hospital of Hague Tribunal

This is also a record of the Tribunal by the period of keeping under arrest the defendant awaiting a verdict

BELGRADE, January 7 (Itar-Tass) —— Vojislav Seselj, leader of the Serb Radical Party, has been transferred to the hospital of the International Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, says a report of the Serb Radical Party with reference to representatives of the Tribunal, which was circulated here on Saturday.

“The Hague Tribunal reported that Seselj’s condition was stable, which was confirmed by his doctor,” the report said. It is known that Seselj was transferred to the hospital on Friday night. Nothing is said in the report about the disease from which he is suffering.

The leaders of the Serb Radical Party report that Seselj’s health problems are the result of “the systematic and daily violations of his rights by the Tribunal.” “It is obvious that the Tribunal has no other strategy of finding a way out of the current situation, in which the prosecutors failed to prove so much as one item of the charges brought against Vojislav Seselj,” the report said. “This is why officers of the Tribunal are willing to go out of their way for not allowing him to defend himself at the trial, including the creation of a direct threat to his life.”

Seselj has been accused of kindling inter-ethnic hatred, as well as instigation to crimes against the non-Serb population of Croatia, Vojevodina (Serbia), Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1991 and 1993. The trial of the case has been going on in the Hague Tribunal since November 7, 2007.

Seselj is the “champion” by the length of his stay under arrest on the order of the Tribunal. He has been in custody for about nine years – since February 24, 2003, when he voluntarily surrendered to the international judicial authorities. This is also a record of the Tribunal by the period of keeping under arrest the defendant awaiting a verdict.