A few moments after being acquitted, Šešelj admitted that his wartime role was important

President of the Serbian Radical Party Vojislav Šešelj today repeatedly praised his own wartime role in the former Yugoslavia, but regardless of that, Hague Tribunal judge Jean-Claude Antonetti acquitted him of all responsibility for crimes committed by the Army of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Vojvodina against the non-Serb population in the early 1990s, reports the Patria agency.

Addressing journalists, Šešelj said: „The moment I set off for The Hague, I knew they could not prove any crime against me.“ Šešelj did not deny the existence of those crimes.

A journalist from Croatia's Index noted that before today's verdict, Šešelj had said that the harsher the verdict, the stronger the idea of a Greater Serbia would become. When asked by the journalist whether, now that the Hague court has acquitted him, this means the idea of a Greater Serbia will die, Šešelj said that the idea of a Greater Serbia will never die, and that his wartime role only further contributed to it.

- The idea of a Greater Serbia is equally strong without me and with me. I am just a small part who contributed with my overall political and wartime engagement – Šešelj replied.

The acquittal of Vojislav Šešelj provoked strong reactions from victims.

Analysts in the region and around the world also assessed that the acquittal of the leader of the Serbian radicals, who publicly incited and encouraged crimes, is a first-class scandal for the Hague Tribunal, reports Patria.