Vojislav Seselj in the courtroom

Following a series of accusations Vojislav Seselj has made against persons in charge of his health care, the Tribunal’s Registrar responded today. The Registrar, who is in charge of the health of the Tribunal’s detainees, today filed a submission to the Judge Antonetti’s Trial Chamber, denying the claims Seselj made at the status conference on 2 November 2010.

The Serbian Radicals leader said that there had been ‘complications’ during his medical treatment of the heart condition in a hospital in The Hague. When Seselj returned to the Detention Unit, his ECG showed ‘disturbing data’.

The ICTY Registrar looked into the allegations made by the accused and submitted, under seal, the report received from the hospital where Seselj was treated. In its submission filed today, the Registrar notes that the medical report – contrary to Seselj’s claims – indicates there were no complications during the treatment. Although the medical procedure was ‘successful’, the medical staff at the Detention Unit stressed that at the moment it was not possible to make a final assessment of Seselj’s treatment “until a reasonable period has passed and the symptoms have not re-occurred”. The surgeon has already explained this to the accused, the Registrar noted.

As for the purportedly ‘disturbing’ ECG results, the Registrar informed the Trial Chamber that they were caused by technical problems. The ECG machine is a very delicate device and various external factors may affect its operation, including close proximity of other electric devices, a patient’s movements or voltage surges. This is why additional analyses were done later using the same machine and the results were ‘within the objectively possible range’.

The motion goes on to conclude that the ICTY Registry would ‘continue carefully monitoring the health of all detainees’ including Vojislav Seselj and ‘deal diligently with every medical problem that may arise’.

The Serbian Radical Party leader is on trial for crimes against non-Serbs in Croatia, Vojvodina and BH. The trial has been adjourned, pending the evidence of a protected witness VS-026 and the Trial Chamber’s decision onthe prosecution’s motion to tender into evidence Ratko Mladic’s notebooks.

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