Brammertz demands Šešelj be returned to The Hague within 24 hours, he says he will not surrender

The chief Hague prosecutor Serge Brammertz requested on Tuesday that the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) urgently set a one-day deadline for the Trial Chamber to implement the decision to return Serbian radical leader Vojislav Šešelj, charged with war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, to the Hague detention, the Patria news agency reports.

The Trial Chamber, instead of immediately issuing an order and implementing the Appeals Chamber's decision of March 30 on Šešelj's return to custody, requested a new report on his health condition.

-The Trial Chamber was not left with any discretion to decide whether to revoke the provisional release or on the timeframe for implementing the decision, Brammertz stated.

-There is no justification for such a delay in implementing an unequivocal decision of the Appeals Chamber, Brammertz wrote, adding that in the context of implementing the Appeals Chamber's decision, Šešelj's health condition is irrelevant.

The ICTY Appeals Chamber decided that Šešelj must return to custody because of his statements that he would not voluntarily return to The Hague, which it interpreted as a violation of the conditions for his provisional release. 

-I will not voluntarily surrender to The Hague, and they can do whatever they want. My actions do not harm Serbia, but this traitorous regime does, said the leader of the Serbian Radical Party, Vojislav Šešelj, in a statement to Sputnik after the Hague Tribunal Prosecutor's Office sent an urgent proposal to the Appeals Chamber for the implementation of the decision to revoke his early release.