A UN war crimes court on Wednesday overturned an acquittal of Serbian politician Vojislav Seselj on charges of persecution and inhumane acts – but the ultra-nationalist said he remained proud of what he did.

Judges in The Hague sentenced Seselj to 10 years on charges including deportation, but since he spent 12 years in pre-trial detention the penalty was considered already served. He was given permission in 2014 to return to Serbia for cancer treatment.

“I am proud of all my war crimes and crimes against humanity and am ready to repeat them,” Seselj told Reuters by telephone from Serbia, saying the fresh verdict is not valid and the appeals court should only have had the power to order a retrial.

Seselj (63) said he still wanted a Greater Serbia uniting all parts of Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia where Serbs live.

Seselj founded the Serbian Radical Party and was deputy prime minister under Slobodan Milosevic during the wars that accompanied the break-up of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s in which more than 100,000 people were killed.

The case is one of the last to come before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ITCY), set up to prosecute major crimes resulting from the wars, which closed last year.

Criminally responsible

The court acquitted Seselj in 2016 of charges including murder for stoking ethnic hatred at the start of the conflicts. However, appeal judges in a special chamber handling outstanding ICTY cases ruled that Seselj was criminally responsible because of a speech he gave in Hrtkovci, Serbia, in May 1992, for “instigating deportation (and) persecution . . . as crimes against humanity”.

Prosecutors had called on the judges to reverse the acquittal or order a retrial. The appeals chamber did not find a strong enough link between Seselj and other members of an alleged joint criminal enterprise to drive non-Serbs from parts of Croatia and Bosnia.

“The initial verdict could have not been turned into conviction. The appeals court could have ordered retrial only,” he said.

Serbian anti-war organisation Women in Black said the verdict gave partial satisfaction to families of victims. “Fighting hate speech and facing the past is a precondition for progress in Serbia and the region,” it said in a statement. – Reuters</s>Why did this happen?

Please make sure your browser supports JavaScript and cookies and that you are not blocking them from loading. For more information you can review our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy.</s>The Hague: UN judges on Wednesday found radical Serb Vojislav Seselj guilty on appeal of crimes against humanity, but the firebrand politician will remain a free man because of time already served behind bars.

 Seselj said after the ruling that he was “proud” of the crimes he was convicted of — including inciting persecution — and was willing to do the same again.

 Presiding judge Theodor Meron sentenced the firebrand politician to 10 years behind bars, at a hearing in The Hague.

 “The appeals chamber reverses Seselj’s acquittals for instigating persecution, deportation and other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity,” the judge said.

 The judges however said that in line with the court’s rules, “Seselj’s sentence has been served” after he spent about 12 years in jail while facing trial at the former Yugoslav war crimes court.

 Seselj snubbed the hearing and was not present when the verdict was read by judges at the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) in The Hague.

 He had been acquitted in March 2016 of six war crimes and three crimes against humanity charges after a trial lasting more than eight years at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

 A three-judge panel led by French judge Jean-Claude Antonetti said in 2016 that prosecutors had “failed to prove beyond all reasonable doubt” or provide sufficient evidence that Seselj was responsible for the crimes he had been charged with.

 The verdict had been heavily criticised by law experts and historians who said it had rewritten the history of the Balkans conflicts.

 The five appeals judges agreed on Wednesday, partially overturning the original trial’s findings, finding him guilty of three counts of crimes against humanity, but upholding his acquittals on the six counts of war crimes.

 Either the initial court had “ignored a substantial portion of highly relevant evidence and its own findings, or it erred in fact,” Meron said. — AFP</s>UN judges Wednesday found radical Serb Vojislav Seselj guilty on appeal of crimes against humanity, but the firebrand politician will remain a free man because of time already served behind bars.

Seselj told AFP after the ruling that he was “proud” of the crimes he was convicted of — including inciting persecution — and was willing to do the same again.

Presiding judge Theodor Meron sentenced the firebrand politician to 10 years behind bars, at a hearing in The Hague.

“The appeals chamber reverses Seselj’s acquittals for instigating persecution, deportation and other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity,” the judge said.

The judges however said that in line with the court’s rules, “Seselj’s sentence has been served” after he spent about 12 years in jail while facing trial at the former Yugoslav war crimes court.

Seselj snubbed the hearing and was not present when the verdict was read by judges at the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) in The Hague.

He had been acquitted in March 2016 of six war crimes and three crimes against humanity charges after a trial lasting more than eight years at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

A three-judge panel led by French judge Jean-Claude Antonetti said in 2016 that prosecutors had “failed to prove beyond all reasonable doubt” or provide sufficient evidence that Seselj was responsible for the crimes he had been charged with.

The verdict had been heavily criticised by law experts and historians who said it had rewritten the history of the Balkans conflicts.

The five appeals judges agreed Wednesday, partially overturning the original trial’s findings, finding him guilty of three counts of crimes against humanity, but upholding his acquittals on the six counts of war crimes.

Either the initial court had “ignored a substantial portion of highly relevant evidence and its own findings, or it erred in fact,” Meron said.

“The appeals chamber finds that no reasonable trier of fact could have concluded that there was no widespread or systematic attack against the non-Serbian population in Croatia and in Bosnia-Herzegovina.”

During his marathon trial, prosecutors alleged Seselj was behind the murders of scores of Croat, Muslim and other non-Serbs between 1991 and 1993 in the conflicts that tore Yugoslavia apart, after the fall of communism.

The prosecution had sought a 28-year-sentence for the man they referred to as the “chief propagandist of the Greater Serbia”. They said he had warned that “rivers of blood” would flow in Bosnia if his vision for a Greater Serbia was opposed.

Seselj denied the allegations and in particular making two speeches highlighted by prosecutors. In the original trial, the judges found his speeches were not incitement to violence, but that he was merely “participating in the war effort by galvanising the Serb forces.”

The appeals judges sharply condemned however what they called Seselj’s “inflammatory words” which they said “substantially contributed” to the persecution and deportations of non-Serbs, including Croats and Bosnian Muslims.

In one speech in May 1992 in the village of Hrtkovci, in Serbia, he had declared “there was no room for Croats” adding “we will drive them to the border of the Serbian territory and they can walk from there,” Meron said.

His speech “incited violence that denigrated and violated the right to security” of Croats in the village, Meron stressed.

The judgement neatly avoids a showdown between the court and Serbia, by finding that the opposition politician has already served his time, and does not face being sent back behind bars.

Seselj, who surrendered himself to the ICTY in 2003, told AFP earlier this month that it was all “lies” that he had made inflammatory speeches, adding that he did not regret his role in the conflict.

“We will never give up the idea of a Greater Serbia,” Seselj insisted. He said his extreme right-wing Serbian Radical Party exists “to unite within the same state all the territories where the Serb people live”.</s>The UN court in The Hague found Vojislav Seselj guilty of war crimes against Croatians in Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina during the war in former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.

Seselj responded to the verdict on Wednesday by announcing on Twitter he was "proud of all my war crimes" and was "ready to repeat them again".

Since Seselj - leader of the Serbian Radical Party - spent eleven-and-a-half years in custody at The Hague since 2003, his sentence has already been served, the court said.

The tribunal found Seselj guilty of inciting hate crimes with his nationalist speeches. One speech he gave to a Serb crowd in May 1992 sparked atrocities against ethnic Croats in Vojvodina.

The verdict marked the first conviction by an international tribunal for inciting crimes through speeches.

In 2016, the war crimes tribunal initially acquitted Seselj of all nine charges he faced, but that was partially overturned on appeal.

The court reaffirmed the establishment of a "Greater Serbia" was Seselj's political goal, but that did not constitute a crime.

It maintained its ruling from the first verdict in 2016 that there was not enough evidence to prove a systematic attack was organised by Seselj against Bosniaks - Bosnian Muslims.

"From today, Vojislav Seselj is a free man," Al Jazeera's Adnan Rondic reported from The Hague.

"The conclusion from two years ago still stands - that there was no proof that Seselj was responsible for sending Serbian volunteers to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia with the aim of committing crimes."

In March 2016, in a 2-to-1 vote, the UN war crimes tribunal found Seselj innocent of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Judge Flavia Lattanzi held the opposing view and said the conclusions reached by the other two were unfounded.

Prosecutors in 2016 appealed for a guilty verdict or a retrial and asked for Seselj to be handed a 28-year sentence, arguing the majority of judges made so many errors that they "invalidate the judgment as a whole".

Historian Marko Attila Hoare said the prosecution should not have indicted him when there were more important perpetrators who were never indicted.

"It was important that he was convicted, particularly since all the other suspects from Serbia indicted over Bosnia were either acquitted or died before their trials were completed or begun," Hoare said.

"I hope Seselj is sufficiently humiliated by the low sentence; it at least marks him down as a second- or third-ranking player, which he was. He was a loudmouthed attention-seeker who made himself infamous to the international public in the 1990s by his extreme statements, and certainly relished the publicity of being indicted and tried."

Seselj said on Wednesday after the ruling, "I'm proud of all my war crimes and I'm ready to repeat them again."

Since his temporary release from detention in The Hague in 2014 for cancer treatment, Seselj returned to politics and is a parliamentarian. He has lead numerous nationalist rallies since then and is a frequent guest on Serbian talk shows.</s>A United Nations war crimes court on Wednesday sentenced a Serbian ultranationalist to 10 years in prison, overturning his acquittal over crimes against humanity and other charges during the Balkan wars in the 1990s.

Vojislav Seselj, who leads the Serbian Radical Party and is a lawmaker in the Serbian parliament, was acquitted in 2016 of nine war crimes and crimes against humanity charges because of insufficient evidence.

Wednesday's sentence centered on a speech Seselj gave in the Serbian village of Hrtkovci close to the Croatian border on May 6, 1992, which resulted in dozens of ethnic Croats being deported.

Prosecutors had accused him of war crimes including persecution, murder and torture and had demanded a 28-year sentence for his support of Serb paramilitaries during the bloody wars in Croatia and Bosnia that claimed over 100,000 lives and left millions homeless.

Judge Theodor Meron said the court found him guilty of "instigating persecution, forcible displacement, deportation, and other inhumane acts" in Hrtkovci.

The ruling on Wednesday at The Hague, Netherlands, left Seselj a convicted war criminal, yet he remained free because he had already spent nearly 12 years in tribunal custody since surrendering in 2003.

Seselj told The Associated Press that Wednesday's was ruling "illegal," adding that he was "proud of all the war crimes and crimes against humanity that were attributed to me. And I am ready to repeat them in the future."

Seselj said judges "lied that there were systematic attacks" on Croats in Serbia.

During the war, the far-right leader won notoriety for rhetoric that incited ethnic hatred among the ex-Yugoslav nations. In one speech, he had called for eyes of Croats to be gouged out "with rusty spoons."

The prosecution said that acquitting Seselj would have damaged the legacy of the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Croatia's foreign ministry said the verdict against Seselj was proof of "planned criminal acts" against the country in the 1990s. However, it called Seselj's sentence "too lenient in relation to the committed crimes" by his supporters during the Balkan wars.

Seselj surrendered to the court in The Hague in February 2003. He was released late in 2014 on compassionate grounds due to ill health but kept up his ultranationalist stance in the Serbian parliament.

Amnesty International Europe Director Gauri van Gulik called the ruling Wednesday "a welcome development which delivers long-delayed justice to thousands of victims of the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia."

The appeals court did not fully overturn Seselj's 2016 acquittal, but Van Gulik said Wednesday's decision showed "there was indeed a 'widespread or systematic attack against the non-Serbian civilian population in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina."'</s>THE HAGUE: UN judges Wednesday found radical Serb Vojislav Seselj guilty on appeal of crimes against humanity, but the firebrand politician will remain a free man because of time already served behind bars.

"The appeals chamber reverses Seselj's acquittals for instigating persecution, deportation and other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity," presiding judge Theodor Meron said at a hearing in The Hague, sentencing the firebrand politician to 10 years behind bars.

The judges however said that in line with the court's rules, "Seselj's sentence has been served" after he spent about 12 years in jail on trial at the former Yugoslav war crimes court.

Seselj snubbed the hearing and was not present when the verdict was read by judges at the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT).

He had been acquitted in March 2016 of nine war crimes and crimes against humanity charges after a trial lasting more than eight years at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

A three-judge panel led by French judge Jean-Claude Antonetti said in 2016 that prosecutors had "failed to prove beyond all reasonable doubt" or provide sufficient evidence that Seselj was responsible for the crimes he had been charged with.

The verdict had been heavily criticised by law experts and historians who said it had rewritten the history of the Balkans conflicts.

The five appeals judges agreed Wednesday, sharply overturning the original trial's findings.

Either the initial court had "ignored a substantial portion of highly relevant evidence and its own findings, or it erred in fact," Meron said.

"The appeals chamber finds that no reasonable trier of fact could have concluded that there was no widespread or systematic attack against the non-Serbian population in Croatia and in Bosnia-Herzegovina."

Wednesday's appeal was before the MICT, which is wrapping up the last cases after the ICTY closed in December.

During his marathon trial, prosecutors alleged Seselj was behind the murders of scores of Croat, Muslim and other non-Serbs between 1991 and 1993 in the conflicts that tore Yugoslavia apart, after the fall of communism.

The prosecution had sought a 28-year-sentence for the man they referred to as the "chief propagandist of the Greater Serbia". They said he had warned that "rivers of blood" would flow in Bosnia if his vision for a Greater Serbia was opposed.

Seselj denied the allegations and in particular making two speeches highlighted by prosecutors in the indictment.

In one address, prosecutors say he encouraged Serbs "not to spare a person" in the 1991 siege of the Croat city of Vukovar. In another a year later, he allegedly described Muslims as "excrement" in the Serbian town of Mali Zvornik.

"Lies," Seselj told AFP earlier this month, adding that he did not regret his role in the conflict.

"We will never give up the idea of a Greater Serbia," Seselj said, adding that his extreme right-wing Serbian Radical Party exists "to unite within the same state all the territories where the Serb people live". — AFP</s>THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Latest on the sentencing of Serb ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj (all times local):

Croatia is satisfied with a U.N. court's conviction of a Serb ultranationalist for war crimes committed in the Balkans in the 1990s but not with the length of his 10-year sentence.

Croatia's foreign ministry says Wednesday that the verdict against Vojislav Seselj is a proof of "planned criminal acts" against Croatia during the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia. It however says the sentence "is too lenient in relation to the committed crimes" by his supporters during the war.

Firebrand nationalist Seselj was initially acquitted by the Netherlands-based court in 2016.

Judges on Wednesday partly overturned the acquittal and sentenced him to 10 years in prison for crimes against humanity. But he remains a free man because he had already spent nearly 12 years in custody.

A rights group is urging Serbian authorities to strip Vojislav Seselj of his parliamentary seat after U.N. judges convicted the ultranationalist leader of crimes against humanity.

The Youth Initiative for Human Rights said Wednesday that ending Seselj's current term as a member of Serbia's parliament is required by the Balkan country's laws.

A court in The Hague, Netherlands, partially overturned Seselj's 2016 acquittal Wednesday and convicted him of war crimes during the Balkan war in the 1990s.

Seselj has described the ruling as "illegal." He was also sentenced to 10 years in prison, but won't have to go to jail as he has already had served the sentence while in custody.

Serbian officials have not commented on the ruling. The Balkan country has been seeking membership in the European Union.

Serbia's ultranationalist leader Vojislav Seselj has shown no remorse after U.N. appeals judges overturned his acquittal for crimes against humanity during the 1990s' Yugoslav war.

Seselj was initially acquitted in 2016. Judges on Wednesday sentenced him to 10 years in prison, which he had already served while in custody.

Seselj on Wednesday described the ruling in a phone statement to The Associated Press as "illegal." He insists the court in The Hague, Netherlands, should have ordered a retrial instead.

He adds he is "proud of all the war crimes and crimes against humanity that were attributed to me, and I am ready to repeat them in the future."

Seselj says judges "lied that there were systematic attacks" on Croats in Serbia in the 1990s. Judges have said a speech by Seselj in May 1992 incited crimes against the Croat minority.

Amnesty International has welcomed a United Nations court's verdict against Serbian far-right leader Vojislav Sesel, saying his conviction delivers long overdue justice to the victims of the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s.

The rights group's Europe Director Gauri van Gulik says that "despite the fact that the Appeals Chamber cleared Vojislav Seselj of other war crimes, it is significant that it found there was indeed a 'widespread or systematic attack against the non-Serbian civilian population in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.'"

A UN court in The Hague, Netherlands, on Wednesday partly overturned a 2016 acquittal of Seselj on war crimes charges and sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment. But because he had already been in prison for almost a dozen years, the sentencing will have no practical impact on him.

Amnesty International says "it is now vital that the national courts step up their efforts to bring remaining perpetrators to justice."

A United Nations court has partly overturned the acquittal of Serbian ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj on war crimes and sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment.

Seselj, accused of persecution, murder and torture during the former Yugoslavia's bloody conflict in the 1990s, was acquitted in 2016 of nine war crimes and crimes against humanity charges.

But because he had already been in prison for almost a dozen years before returning to Belgrade in 2014, Wednesday's sentencing will have no practical impact on him.

Seselj told the Associated Press on just prior to the reading of the verdict in The Hague, the Netherlands that "I don't care about the ruling. Now I'll go and have a siesta."

The prosecution had said that acquitting Seselj would have damaged the war crimes tribunal's legacy.</s>The Latest on the sentencing of Serb ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj (all times local):

Serbia's ultranationalist leader Vojislav Seselj has shown no remorse after U.N. appeals judges overturned his acquittal for crimes against humanity during the 1990s' Yugoslav war.

Seselj was initially acquitted in 2016. Judges on Wednesday sentenced him to 10 years in prison, which he had already served while in custody.

Seselj on Wednesday described the ruling in a phone statement to The Associated Press as "illegal." He insists the court in The Hague, Netherlands, should have ordered a retrial instead.

He adds he is "proud of all the war crimes and crimes against humanity that were attributed to me, and I am ready to repeat them in the future."

Seselj says judges "lied that there were systematic attacks" on Croats in Serbia in the 1990s. Judges have said a speech by Seselj in May 1992 incited crimes against the Croat minority.

Amnesty International has welcomed a United Nations court's verdict against Serbian far-right leader Vojislav Sesel, saying his conviction delivers long overdue justice to the victims of the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s.

The rights group's Europe Director Gauri van Gulik says that "despite the fact that the Appeals Chamber cleared Vojislav Seselj of other war crimes, it is significant that it found there was indeed a 'widespread or systematic attack against the non-Serbian civilian population in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.'"

A UN court in The Hague, Netherlands, on Wednesday partly overturned a 2016 acquittal of Seselj on war crimes charges and sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment. But because he had already been in prison for almost a dozen years, the sentencing will have no practical impact on him.

Amnesty International says "it is now vital that the national courts step up their efforts to bring remaining perpetrators to justice."

A United Nations court has partly overturned the acquittal of Serbian ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj on war crimes and sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment.

Seselj, accused of persecution, murder and torture during the former Yugoslavia's bloody conflict in the 1990s, was acquitted in 2016 of nine war crimes and crimes against humanity charges.

But because he had already been in prison for almost a dozen years before returning to Belgrade in 2014, Wednesday's sentencing will have no practical impact on him.

Seselj told the Associated Press on just prior to the reading of the verdict in The Hague, the Netherlands that "I don't care about the ruling. Now I'll go and have a siesta."

The prosecution had said that acquitting Seselj would have damaged the war crimes tribunal's legacy.</s>A United Nations war crimes court on Wednesday sentenced a Serbian ultranationalist to 10 years in prison, partially overturning his acquittal over crimes against humanity and other charges dating to the Balkan wars in the 1990s.

Vojislav Seselj, who leads the Serbian Radical Party and is a lawmaker in the Serbian parliament, was acquitted in 2016 of nine war crimes and crimes against humanity charges because of insufficient evidence.

Because he had already spent nearly 12 years in tribunal custody since surrendering in 2003, Wednesday's sentencing in The Hague, the Netherlands, had no practical impact on him.

Seselj told The Associated Press just prior to the reading of the verdict that "I don't care about the ruling. Now I'll go and have a siesta." Afterward, he told the AP the ruling was "illegal," adding that he was "proud of all the war crimes and crimes against humanity that were attributed to me, and I am ready to repeat them in the future."

Prosecutors accused him of crimes including persecution, murder and torture and had demanded a 28-year sentence for his support of Serb paramilitaries during the bloody wars in Croatia and Bosnia.

The far-right leader won notoriety for rhetoric that incited ethnic hatred among the ex-Yugoslav nations. In one of his speeches to his supporters during the war, he had called for eyes of Croats to be gouged out.

The prosecution had said that acquitting Seselj would have damaged the legacy of the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Seselj surrendered to the court in The Hague in February 2003. He was released late in 2014 on compassionate grounds due to ill health, and continued with his ultranationalist stand in the Serbian parliament.

"Seselj's sentence has been served in view of the credit that shall be given for his detention," Meron said.

Wednesday's sentence centered on one speech Seselj gave in the Serbian village of Hrtkovci close to the Croatian border on May 6, 1992, which resulted in dozens of ethnic Croats being deported.

Judge Theodor Meron said the court found him guilty of "instigating persecution, forcible displacement, deportation, and other inhumane acts" in Hrtkovci, Serbia's Vojvodina province.

Seselj said judges "lied that there were systematic attacks" on Croats in Serbia.

Amnesty International Europe Director Gauri van Gulik called the ruling "a welcome development which delivers long-delayed justice to thousands of victims of the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia."

The appeals court did not fully overturn Seselj 2016 acquittal, but Van Gulik said Wednesday's decision showed "there was indeed a 'widespread or systematic attack against the non-Serbian civilian population in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina'."
The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals partly overturns the acquittal of Serb radical nationalist Vojislav Šešelj and finds him guilty of crimes against humanity during the Yugoslav Wars. He is not detained as he served more than eleven years in the court's custody, and takes to Twitter to declare himself "proud of my war crimes" and "ready to repeat them".