Minister: Hague acts more as political than court of law

Minister: Hague acts more as political than court of law

"We have not yet received an official note about it. The Serbian government had a clear and principled position in this, we had enough patience and courage to fight for the interest of every citizen and in the end our efforts have yielded results, and the decision was made," Selakovic told Belgrade-based broadcaster TV Pink.

The minister added that he "does not want to go into what the court's decision (in the trial) will be," but noted that "it often transpired, at least where it concerned Serbs, that the Hague Tribunal acted more as a political, than a court of law."

The Hague trial chamber voted on Wednesday 2-1 to announce the verdict against Seselj in absentia, having accepted the Serbian government's explanation, presented in a confidential message, that it was impossible to stop Seselj's treatment for liver cancer, or continue it in The Hague, Beta agency reported.

The dissenting judge, however, said the Serbian authorities had not done enough to return the accused to the tribunal.

Asked how he understood the part of the explanation that said Serbian authorities did not apply adequate mechanisms to force Seselj to attend the reading of the verdict on March 31, Selakovic said that "nobody asked the government of Serbia for any guarantees when he (Seselj) was sent back to Serbia, except not to issue him with travel documents."

Selakovic added he did not think Serbian authorities had their fingers rapped in this context, adding there was a March 15 deadline to send a letter to the Hague Tribunal, and that this was done even earlier. "We have acted in accordance with what was asked by the Hague Tribunal," said Selakovic.

Asked whether "this can be considered as Seselj's victory over the Hague Tribunal," the minister said he "does not know what a victory is" - because the leader of the Radicals had spent more than a decade in custody, while his trial would "go down in the annals of court proceedings, since it has been an unusual and specific case from the beginning to its conclusion."

"I would not go into who defeated whom, what is important for me is that the policy of the government of Serbia and of Aleksandar Vucic has been principled, we have been patient, we were not ready to respond to some kind of pressure, which has led us to this outcome, which is encouraging," said Selakovic.

Speaking about the trial of Radovan Karadzic, whose verdict will be announced on March 24, Selakovic said he "does not expect anything from the Hague, whatever decision it makes," just as he "does not expect anything in the case of Seselj."

"There is no legal predictability in the functioning of the Hague Tribunal, the principle they have acted on so far has not been equal. What to expect from a tribunal that freed Ante Gotovina, Mladen Markac and Ramush Haradinaj? The least I can say is that I expect nothing," concluded Selakovic.