UN Appeals Chamber Partly Reverses Šešelj Acquittal and Convicts Him of Crimes Against Humanity (April 11, 2018) [1]
On April 11, 2018, the Appeals Chamber of the UN Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) issued its judgment [3] on the Prosecution’s appeal of Vojislav Šešelj’s acquittal, reversing in part, and dismissing the remainder of the appeal. As the press release [4] notes, “the Appeals Chamber entered convictions against Mr. Šešelj under Counts 1, 10, and 11 of the Indictment for instigating deportation, persecution (forcible displacement), and other inhumane acts (forcible transfer) as crimes against humanity, as well as for committing persecution, based on a violation of the right to security, as a crime against humanity.” The Appeals Chamber also reversed the Trial Chamber’s finding “that there was no widespread or systematic attack against the non-Serbian civilian population in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina,” determining that there was sufficient evidence on the matter and that no reasonable trier of fact could have concluded otherwise. The Appeals Chamber sentenced Šešelj to ten years in prison. In 2016, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia Trial Chamber issued a judgment [5] acquitting Šešelj of three counts of crimes against humanity and six counts of violations of the laws or customs of war.