SARAYEVO, August 3 - RAPSI. Leader of the Serbian Radical Party Vojislav Seselj has disputed the sentence of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia's (ICTY), which sentenced him to two years in prison for contempt of court on June 28, Deputy Party Chairman Dejan Mirovic said on Thursday.

The Hague Tribunal did not allow Seselj's legal representative and adviser to take part in the proceedings, thus depriving him of his right to defense, the deputy said.
During the trial on June 18, Seselj was charged with contempt of court. The trial came to end shortly after because the defendant claimed his rights were violated.

He refused to defend himself or pronounce his final plea.

Seselj told the judges that they should give their verdict immediately, which he would then appeal. The presiding judge announced the close of the proceedings and that the sentence would be passed later.

Seselj was accused of contempt of court and divulgence of data on court-protected witnesses in cases of military crimes in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

The court repeatedly demanded that Seselj should remove four books from his website and other documents containing information about the witnesses.

The ICTY has also charged Seselj with persecuting civilians in the early 1990s for political, racial and religious reasons. He is suspected of illegal deportations, inhumane actions, murder, torture, violence, destroying villages without a just cause and looting in Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia and the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina.
Seselj has already been tried for these crimes.

The judges are expected to lay down his sentence in several months.