After the acquittal of Vojislav Šešelj, comments and analyses do not cease. Many are now inclined to blame prosecutors for possible omissions in the indictment. It is untenable accusation. Mostly top prosecutors worked in the case Šešelj. Around ten of them, who have worked on this case, are an example of knowledge and skills in common law. The western civilization deems their judiciary an ultimate intellectual work. Career in international judiciary is a sign of great learning and sacrifice and the pinnacle of legal skills.
During all nine years of trial of Šešelj in Hague, it could be heard that horrified prosecutors and judges avoid the case Šešelj, feeling as if they were going in a sort of punitive expedition. Claims that this is caused by some Šešelj’s abilities are comic. Constant Šešelj’s cursing, noise, provocations, trial interruptions, requests for removal of prosecutors from the process, attacks on judges, threats and intimidation of witnesses, hunger strike, profanities – it all made a circus act out of this trial. His former boss Slobodan Milošević had the same verbal outbursts.
There were some ten prosecutors who have worked on this case for a maximum of one year, and then scattered mindlessly. There were some amazing prosecutor’s such as Dan Saxon, a lucid American who had been working in the Tribunal for 12 years and then left the Šešelj case.
Joana Motoike is a prominent US judge who left the process against Šešelj. She is still working in California. Melissa Pack is an extraordinary prosecutor who read the verdict of Radovan Karadžić. She has been performing the function of prosecutor in Šešelj’s case for a short time, and then she left the process. Daryl Mundis, an American, was a prosecutor and investigator in numerous international law cases. He spent a short time working on the Šešelj case before leaving it. Christin Dahl worked with Mundis in the prosecution team against Šešelj, and then she left the case also. Lisa Birsey, an US prosecutor, was involved in this case until two years ago, when she suddenly left the process.
The Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz was shortly a prosecutor in this case, and then Šešelj demanded his disqualification from the case. Brammertz left the case about 11 months prior to the verdict. In the end of the process, the one who remained was Mathias Marcussen, a capable prosecutor with an arduous position in a compromised case.
Just like prosecutors, the judges have changed as well. The Jamaican judge Patrick Robinson was the first on the case before leaving it. The current Vice-President of The Tribunal Carmel Agius was also a judge in the process against Šešelj. There was also Kevin Parker Horace Sworn, and Australian who has been working in The Tribunal since 2003. Finally, the judge Frederijk Harhoff was brutally ousted, after publically accusing the President of the Court Theodore Meron of exerting pressure on the judges to acquit Ante Gotovina and then the General of the Yugoslav National Army Momčilo Perišić.
Is there anything that still has to be said, except the fact that the only permanent member of the Trial Chamber in the case Šešelj from the beginning to the end of the process was Jean Cloude Antonetti. He was the one who pronounced that shameful verdict that still horrifies the world, days after the trial.
(Source: nap.ba)
