By Talha Ozturk
SARAJEVO
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague has announced it will release former Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj - currently awaiting the verdict in his trial on charges of war crimes - so he can receive chemotherapy treatment for colon and liver cancer.
ICTY spokeswoman Magdalena Spalinska told Anadolu Agency in a statement on Friday that the Serbian politician would be allowed to get treatment in Serbia due to his current worsening health situation, but said the release date had not been decided.
But Jasmin Meskovic, President of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Association of Concentration Camp Victims, attacked the decision as an "insult to the victims of war".
"Releasing Seselj temporarily is insulting to the victims of the Bosnian War and is like spitting in their faces," Meskovic said.
"We of the Association of Concentration Camp Victims condemn this decision," he said.
Medical Advisory Board members who recently visited Seselj said his life was in danger.
- Guarantees demanded
The ICTY has demanded guarantees from Serbia and the Netherlands that they will ensure Seselj returns to The Hague and will not communicate with any alleged former victims or trial witnesses.
Seselj is expected to undergo treatment for between four and six months.
Seselj, the founder and president of the Serbian Radical Party, is alleged to have recruited paramilitary groups and incited them to commit atrocities during the Balkan wars of the early 1990s.
The charges against him include murder, forced deportation, illegal imprisonment, torture and the destruction of property.
He surrendered voluntarily in February 2003 but his trial did not begin until November 2007.
He was sentenced to a further 15 months in custody on 24 July 2009 for disrespecting the court after publishing the names of trial witnesses on his internet site.
www.aa.com.tr/en
