Serb ultra-nationalist Vojislav Seselj has launched a new strategy to derail proceedings against him at the ICTY. The self-proclaimed “greatest living Serbian lawyer” who has represented himself before the court for the last eight years, boasting he has already won, abruptly turned into a layman-accused who “does not and could not understand” a one-page, one-count contempt of court indictment without privileged communication with his legal advisers.

By Radosa Milutinovic, The Hague

“How can I plead about something that could cost me a sentence of seven years’ imprisonment and I did not understand what I am being charged with? I did not understand and I cannot understand without legal assistance. I require legal assistance...and you are not providing me with legal assistance”.

He also said he will request disqualification of the trial chamber – the same one that sentenced him to 18 months in prison for contempt last week – branding it “unreasonable”.

Transformation
Seselj's sudden courtroom “transformation” was initiated by the court registrar’s decision, imposed on October 28, to monitor all his communication with his legal advisors for a month - because of the suspicion he has “abused privileged communication”... to disclose “confidential information on his website in violation of judicial orders, thereby interfering with the administration of justice”.

And in turn, the content of Seselj's website is precisely what's at the heart of the third contempt of court proceedings. The leader of the Serb Radical Party was charged with “failing to remove confidential information from his personal website” - including four of his books and five confidential filings - “in violation of orders of a Chamber”.

“These books and filings reveal confidential information about a number of protected witnesses who testified in his main trial before the Tribunal for alleged war crimes” against non-Serbs in Croatia, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and Bosnia in 1991-93, the ICTY said in a recent release.

Extended war
For some time now, Seselj has extended his war against the Tribunal into cyberspace. The extent of the battle became clear at the end of August, when, during closing arguments in second contempt of court trial, he said:

“All the Tribunal orders would be in vain, and it (the website) cannot be shut down. First, they have tracked the provider in Sweden, and there was an order issued for the web site to be closed. I managed to find a provider in Germany. Then I found another one in Serbia. So my site was never shut down for more than 24 hours. Now I have a provider in California that ignores all kinds of orders. And, therefore, my Internet site is safe...and everything posted there would never be removed”.

Defiance or self-pity?
With a characteristic show of defiance, dipped in self-pity, Seselj seemed to particularly enjoy the possibility that his eldest son, Nikola, who acts as his webmaster from Serbia, might be charged with contempt of the court too.

Seselj will again have an opportunity to enter a plea to his third contempt of court indictment in about 10 days. But it is highly unlikely he will do so, because the suspension of his privileged communications with advisors will still be in force.

In the meantime, closing arguments in the main trial of Seselj for alleged war crimes have been scheduled by the Tribunal for March 5, 2012