First Deputy Prime Minister Karamarko appalled at Seselj acquittal

First Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Karamarko has said he is appalled at the ICTY acquittal of Vojislav Seselj, while Parliament Speaker Zeljko Reiner hopes justice will be served with the final verdict.

Karamarko said on Thursday he was consternated and appalled by Seselj's acquittal, describing the Serb radical as a notorious criminal and "a harlequin who laughs at us all, the entire world and the Hague tribunal which did not know how to convict him."

Reiner expressed hope that this was "just a tribunal's mistake" because the judgement is not final and that "justice will win in the end, regardless of the fact that this is a tribunal which passes its judgements according to criteria that are not only legal."

Both Karamarko and Reiner took part in a commemoration for the first police office killed in the 1990s war in Croatia, Josip Jovic, and a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the police operation "Plitvice".

An International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Trial Chamber on Thursday acquitted Vojislav Seselj on all counts of the indictment for war crimes in Croatia, Vojvodina and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"With this acquittal on all nine counts of the indictment, the arrest warrant issued by the Appeals Chamber is rendered moot," said presiding judge Jean-Claude Antonetti.

"Vojislav Seselj is now a free man," Judge Antonetti said after finding Seselj not guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Balkan wars in the 1990s.

(Text: Hina)

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