Court confirms: Šešelj to remain in custody

Court confirms: Šešelj to remain in custody

The decision was made after Šešelj refused to state whether he would comply with conditions set for his provisional release. The leader of the Serb Radical Party (SRS) has been accused of war crimes and detained by the court for over 11 years.

The judges noted on Thursday that they launched the procedure for the provisional release of Šešelj when they asked the governments of Serbia and the Netherlands take on obligations in connection with that process.

This step was taken after a new member of the panel, Judge Mandiaye Niang, informed the Tribunal that he was unable to join his colleagues in the deliberations on Šešelj's verdict, as he needed more than the six months he already spent to learn about the case.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Šešelj did not make any statement on the terms of the Hague Tribunal. Lawyer Toma Fila said that if there was no answer from the defendant, it would be considered that he did not agree to the conditions.

Among them was house arrest, confiscation of travel documents, and a ban on contact with witnesses and victims.

Šešelj surrendered to the Hague Tribunal on February 23 2003 and pleaded not guilty to all counts of the indictment charging him with crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war he allegedly committed in Croatia, Bosnia, and Vojvodina, from 1991 until 1993.

He has since been detained in Scheveningen, near The Hague in the Netherlands. The trial began in 2007, and is still ongoing. The prosecution completed presenting its evidence in late 2010, while Šešelj, who is representing himself, did not want to make any defense arguments.