Vojislav Seselj accused the prosecution of trying to procure “false witnesses” to testify against him, using pressure and blackmail. Carla Del Ponte’s advisor rejected Seselj’s indignantly , but did not go into details because there might be an investigation into the matter at a later stage


At the regular press briefing at the Tribunal today, Anton Nikiforov, Carla Del Ponte’s advisor, rejected indignantly the accusations levied by Vojislav Seselj against the Office of the Prosecutor. Seselj said that the prosecution tried to procure “false witnesses” to testify against him at the forthcoming trial, using pressure and blackmail. At the status conference last week, Seselj said that he had delivered the affidavits of eighteen persons who stated that they had been exposed to threats or bribe attempts to testify against the Serbian Radical Party leader. This document is still not available to the public as it is being translated.

Refraining from going into details, because there might be an investigation into Seselj’s accusations, Nikiforov explained that if the prosecution had evidence showing that a potential witness was involved in any crimes, it was obliged to notify them about that at the beginning of the interview, to conduct the interview in the presence of their attorney and to tape whole interview. In Nikiforov’s opinion this was done to safeguard the rights of suspects and not to exert pressure on potential witnesses

Refik Hodzic, ICTY spokesperson, added that the ICTY had mechanisms to ensure that everything that its organs, including the prosecution, did was done according to the highest international standards of procedure and with respect to the human rights.

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