The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslav (ICTY) [official website] publicly announced [press release] on Tuesday confidential charges and arrest warrants [order, PDF] for contempt of court against three people involved in the Vojislav Šešelj trial [ICTY case materials]. Petar Jojić, Jovo Ostojić and Vjerica Radeta, two defense lawyers and an associate of Seselj, are suspected of having threatened, intimidated, offered bribes to, or otherwise interfered with two witnesses in the trial against Šešelj and other contempt cases [ICTY case materials] against him. The ICTY lifted confidentiality in accordance with rules 52 and 77 (E) of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence [text, PDF] to ensure “the integrity of its proceedings and the safety of its witnesses.” The arrest warrants for the three accused were issued confidentially on January 19 and have not been executed by Serbia to date.

The ICTY [JURIST backgrounder] and the Balkan States continue to prosecute those accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity that left more than 100,000 people dead and millions displaced during the Balkan conflict of the 1990s. In May the ICTY ordered [JURIST report] Serbia’s justice ministry to return Vojislav Seselj to his detention cell immediately. Seselj had been held in The Hague on charges of leading ethnic Serbs to persecute non-Serbs during the Croatia and Bosnia wars in the 1990s but was released last month [JURIST op-ed] to return to Serbia for cancer treatment. Seselj has pleaded not guilty on nine counts including murder and torture. The ICTY had revoked his provisional release [JURIST report] in March, because Seselj spoke at a news conference in Belgrade and stated [WSJ report] that he would not return voluntarily to The Hague.