U.N. tribunal acquits Serbian firebrand Seselj of war crimes

THE HAGUE U.N. judges acquitted Serbian nationalist firebrand Vojislav Seselj of war crimes and crimes against humanity on Thursday, a shock verdict that delivered a boost to his anti-EU Serbian Radical Party ahead of April elections.


Prosecutors had accused Seselj of stoking murderous ethnic hatred with his fiery rhetoric at the outset of the 1990s wars that followed the collapse of federal Yugoslavia into seven successor states, a conflict that cost 130,000 lives.


On one occasion, Seselj gave a speech to Serbian troops, telling them: "Not a single Ustasha must leave Vukovar alive," using a derogatory term for Croats in 1991 in the eastern Croatian city on the Danube River border with Serbia. But the U.N. tribunal ruled that this did not amount to incitement.


It could not be ruled out that such speeches were made "in a context of conflict and were meant to boost the morale of the troops of his camp, rather than calling upon them to spare no one," said presiding Judge Jean-Claude Antonetti.


At Radical Party headquarters in Belgrade, Seselj's supporters cheered the stunning outcome at the U.N. tribunal - Seselj himself had expected a 25-year sentence. Polls show his party hovering just above the 5 percent threshold it would need to return to parliament next month after four years outside.


"This acquittal leaves me speechless," said Vesna Bosanac, the head of a Vukovar hospital besieged by pro-Seselj militia in 1991. "The only thing that awaits him is the judgment of God."


Thursday's verdict may prove awkward for the right-wing government of Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, once an ally of Seselj who dropped his nationalism in favor of a policy of seeking Serbia's admission to the European Union.


Seselj, 61, is a prolific writer known for his short temper and was a close ally of the late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who died in his U.N. tribunal cell in The Hague a decade ago before his war crimes trial could be completed.


Seselj has never abandoned his ideal of a "Greater Serbia" incorporating parts of Croatia and Bosnia that Serb nationalist forces fought for after Yugoslavia's federal republics broke away, and his message could yet tempt back Vucic supporters.


The government is walking a tightrope at a time of growing Russian influence in southeastern Europe - Moscow is a traditional ally of Serbia - and risks losing domestic support if it is seen as too accommodating of the EU-backed ICTY.


Seselj's acquittal also comes as a blow to prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia after the decade-long trial, the longest in ICTY history.


"With this acquittal on all the nine counts of the indictment, the arrest warrant issued by the appeals chamber is rendered moot," said Antonetti. "Vojislav Seselj is now a free man."


(Additional reporting by Ivana Sekularac and Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade and Igor Ilic in Zagreb; Editing by Mark Heinrich)