Šešelj to face trial from defense bench

Šešelj to face trial from defense bench

Vojislav Šešelj will move from the dock to the defense bench at the next status conference, in accordance with his wishes.

As pre-trial judge Antonetti stated today, Šešelj will sit in the second row of defense seats, “for security reasons”.

His legal advisors will sit in the front row, closer to the judges. Šešelj asked this, as he explained, to create “a visual impression of equality with the prosecution” in the audience and the prosecution witnesses.

Because the courtrooms and trial chambers are busy, Vojislav Šešelj’s trial could begin in November at the earliest, it was stated today. The trial of General Dragomir Milošević is due to finish then.

This means that Šešelj’s case will be heard by the Chamber with Judge Patrick Robinson as the presiding judge. He had the opportunity to get acquainted with the accused during his marathon testimony in the Slobodan Milošević trial.

At the status conference today, Šešelj indicated he would be appealing against the Trial Chamber’s decision to postpone the consideration of the motion in which he accused Carla Del Ponte and two of her associates of “contempt of court” because of alleged attempts to blackmail witnesses into giving false testimony against Šešelj.

The Chamber decided it would deal with the motion after the end of the trial, and the accused disagreed with the decision, expressing his concern that Del Ponte, whose term of office expires in September, “will flee and no one will be able to catch her”.

Despite the objections raised by prosecutor Christine Dahl that such “malicious, slanderous and false accusations” should not be heard in court, Judge Antonetti allowed Šešelj to continue, saying that if Carla del Ponte should become “inaccessible” after her term of office expires, a warrant for her arrest could be issued.

The pre-trial judge also advised Šešelj to draft a motion seeking from the Trial Chamber to review the decision not to grant funds for his team of legal experts and advisors.

Noting that he will not be taking the decision on the issue alone, Judge Antonetti let the accused know that he “personally believes the funds necessary for the preparation of the defense case should be placed at the disposal of the accused”.

The next status conference in the Vojislav Šešelj case will be held on June 5.