Posted on 09/16/2006 6:47:35 AM PDT by kronos77
Serbian ultra-nationalist leader puts on a show at his latest court appearance.
By Katy Glassborow in The Hague (TU No 468, 15-Sep-06) Journalists and members of the public who squeezed into the tiny public gallery of the Hague tribunal’s Courtroom Two had a ringside seat this week for another signature performance from Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj.
Seselj – famous for the obscene language and insults he hurls at the court – referred to the defence lawyer whom trial judges had assigned to him as “that man with the bird’s nest on his head” and was sent out at his own request shortly after the status conference started.
Before leaving, Seselj described the court as a “theatrical production” which had “denied me my right to represent myself”.
“You have brought actors here to represent me, and you are acting in contravention of my human rights,” he said.
Seselj’s regular outbursts and vitriolic written submissions to the court – at last count there were around 200 – have caused outrage and amusement in equal measure amongst those who monitor tribunal proceedings.
When Seselj was testifying as a defence witness for the late Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in 2005, prosecutor Geoffrey Nice requested that he read one particularly vulgar submission aloud in court.
The footage of Seselj doing so was broadcast on Serbia’s B-92 television channel, and gained infamy after it became available as an audio clip on the internet. It was even downloaded as a ring-tone for mobile phones in Serbia and Montenegro.
The September 14 status conference was designed to work through all the prosecution and defence issues ahead of the start of the trial, which Presiding Judge Alphons Orie announced would begin in early November.
(Excerpt) Read more at iwpr.net ...
Note No1> Sesely is indicted on basiss of "Holding fiery nationalistic and anti-Muslim speaches"
Note No2> he was the man that infront of TV cameras read a statement saying "Chief UN prosecutor can kneel down and give me a BJ"
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