Shocking details from the biography: Who is Judge Antonetti

Judge Jean-Claude Antonetti, who today read the verdict for Vojislav Šešelj, is a special story of the Tribunal in The Hague. He was born on July 13, 1942, in France. For a time, he was a legal advisor to French President Jacques Chirac. He has been a judge at the Tribunal since October 1, 2003. He replaced Judge Claude Jorda, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria.

When Antonetti today repeatedly justified Šešelj's radical statements and his numerous calls for murder, he essentially demonstrated his scandalous attitude towards justice.

It seems incredible that a French judge does not consider clear and open calls for war, lynching, slaughter, and torture, such as gouging out the eyes of Croats, as even questionable, let alone punishable. Even if this were a political verdict, it would contradict the political views of the vast majority of Antonetti's French compatriots.

Flavia Lattanzi, an Italian, was an auxiliary judge in the case against Radovan Karadžić, and in the Šešelj case, she was a member of the Trial Chamber. Naturally, in all details of this incredible acquittal by Antonetti, this honorable judge was opposed. Her dissenting opinion is a monument to justice within the courts. Namely, in the case against Karadžić, where the honorable Judge Lattanzi was a member of the Chamber, Šešelj was treated as fully active in a joint criminal enterprise. It was completely illogical for one Trial Chamber to reach one decision and another Trial Chamber to reach such legal nonsense.

Judge Antonetti is linked to a series of scandals at the Tribunal. He was a judge in the first-instance proceedings and verdict for Jadranko Prlić and others. He sought the acquittal of all the accused. He dissented from the other two members of the Trial Chamber, Arpad Prandler and Stefan Trechsel, believe it or not, more than 2,000 times. When he once partially dissented, the other two judges were shocked, and staff checked whether he was serious.

To make Antonetti's scandalous role in the Prlić and others trial clear, one should single out a question he once posed to Jadranko Prlić: "In which part of Mostar did you live before the war, eastern or western Mostar?"

In general, Antonetti was outvoted in the Prlić and others case.

It seems that the verdict for Šešelj had been prepared long ago. This was shown by the attitude towards the composition of the Trial Chamber and the games played around the process.

One should know that behind the acquittal stand the dark forces of the Tribunal in the form of some people like Theodor Meron. Namely, the judge in the case against Šešelj was the honorable Danish judge Frederik Harhoff. He was disqualified from the Šešelj trial in August 2013. Harhoff became known when he wrote a shocking letter in which he claimed that Theodor Meron had pressured judges to deliver an acquittal in the Gotovina and Perišić cases. And of course, Meron succeeded in getting them acquitted. And Harhoff, a judge at the Tribunal for more than 15 years and a man of reputation, was simply driven out of the court, and out of this process against Šešelj. So, everything was orchestrated long before, and the key question is whether behind this acquittal of Šešelj by Antonetti stands Antonetti himself or whether Meron is behind it all.

The third judge, after the fourth Harhoff, became Mandiaye Niang, a Senegalese with a poor biography and poor background, for whom the Tribunal is a kind of earthly paradise. He was only briefly a member of the Supreme Court of Senegal. Of course, he showed submissiveness and obedience to Antonetti.

The entire attitude of the majority in the Trial Chamber was described by the honorable Judge Flavia Lattanzi. The dissenting opinion goes to only three addresses: Antonetti, Niang, and Meron.