In the Guantanamo of Europe, an antiglobalist triumph

 

 

A very well-insulated man, who regularly makes appearances in front of cameras, is being murdered in strange and novel ways. Silence enshrouds his case, and I feel obliged to try and break it.

He is in the longest detention in Europe. He has recently entered the tenth year of detention, while the trial which serves as an excuse for it has just entered its final stage. Where in Europe does this happen? Not in a border region between Europe and Asia. It happens behind some of the most respectably looking facades in the world — those of the United Nations, an international court of justice, and, concretely, the façade of the “International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia” (ICTY) in the Hague, Netherlands.

A detention of nine years, and counting! Why? Why such length?

Inquiries were made, and an official explanation has never been given. The whole trial is Kafkaesque. Kafka’s “The Trial” ends with a gruesome murder in the dark of the night, before the end of the process. This Hague trial was about to end with a murder attempt on the night between 8th and 9th March 2012. It was done through remote controlled electrical shocks, induced by a medical electronic device previously implanted in the body of the detainee.

But I think I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me go back with a story of how this case began.

“We have only one request – take him away, never to bring him back again!” – recounted the Hague Tribunal’s Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte in her memoir “La caccia, io e I criminali di Guerra,” citing the words of the Serbian prime minister in 2003 about the Serbian opposition leader Vojislav Seselj.

But he was not to be “taken.” As soon Seselj heard of his indictment on 14 February 2003, he booked a flight to Amsterdam and, ten days later, the ever restless Serbian Radical checked-in to the Netherlands police authorities for an indefinite stay in prison. [11] He was accused of some of the gravest crimes possible, by a court he called illegitimate. Why was he eager to get himself inside its jaws?

Read more: In the Guantanamo of Europe, an antiglobalist triumph

 

Related posts:

  1. Serbian politician ‘on trial’ at Hague implanted with faulty pacemaker
  2. Farage On Europe: Determined But Delusional
  3. As Europe shoots more “easy money,” blanks at the Depression, Americans “reach for real bullets”
  4. Iceland prime minister trial update
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes