Prosecutors seek medical check for Šešelj

Prosecutors have asked the Hague Tribunal to check on the health Vojislav Šešelj.

Izvor: AP

Friday, 17.11.2006.

12:31

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Prosecutors seek medical check for Šešelj

Šešelj's supporters claim he started a hunger strike last week demanding the U.N. tribunal grant him free choice of legal advisers, unrestricted spousal visits and an unconditional right to conduct his own defense.

In a motion filed Thursday and released by the Hague-based court on Friday, prosecutors requested an immediate check on his health and described Šešelj's hunger strike as the latest in a long line of ploys aimed at obstructing his trial.

Prosecutors asked judges to order the head of the tribunal's detention unit to confirm whether Šešelj was indeed on a hunger strike and if so to order that "a medical examination of the accused be immediately performed" to establish his health and his ability to defend himself at his trial, which is scheduled to start Nov. 27.

"If the accused deliberately impairs his ability to stand trial and, moreover to represent himself, his conduct would 'substantially obstruct the proper and expeditious proceedings in this case,'" the prosecution motion said, quoting from an earlier decision from the court's appeals chamber.

The appeals judges stated last month that Šešelj could defend himself, overruling an earlier decision to appoint a defense attorney for Šešelj because of his repeated obstructive and disruptive behavior, which has included abusive rants and demands that judges remove their robes because they remind him of medieval inquisitors.

However the appeals ruling also said that a defense attorney could still be appointed if Šešelj continued to obstruct proceedings.

"The prosecution submits that a hunger strike to achieve certain demands — if confirmed — is clearly aimed at disrupting and obstructing the proper conduct of the trial against the accused," the prosecutors' motion stated.

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