A chamber of The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) decided today to remove Judge Frederik Harhoff from the trial of accused Serbian war criminal and founder of the Serbian Radical Party Vojislav Šešelj. The decision is the result of a motion filed by Šešelj, which asserted that Judge Marhoff had demonstrated–in a June 6 letter circulated to colleagues and the press–a bias that would affect his judgement in this case.
The letter in question caused controversy when it was first published by Danish and international news outlets. In it, Harhoff claimed that the ICTY had recently experienced a shift from the previous “set practice” of holding military and political commanders responsible for war crimes committed by their subordinates. Harhoff further alleged in his letter that this shift was the result of pressure exerted upon ICTY judges by the tribunal’s American president.
The motion filed by Šešelj argued that the letter demonstrated Harhoff’s bias toward convicting war-time officials like Šešelj, and further argued that Harhoff’s previous record on the tribunal showed a bias toward convicting Serbs. In a majority decision with one judge dissenting the panel appointed by the ICTY’s vice president upheld the motion.
