The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentenced leader of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) Vojislav Seselj to 18 months' imprisonment for contempt of the Tribunal.

Seselj was found guilty of disclosing confidential information pertaining to protected witnesses in a book he authored. The Trial Chamber concluded that “the accused knew he was disclosing information which identified ten of the witnesses and revealed that they could be involved in the Seselj case when he published the book, and that he did so intentionally, with the knowledge that by doing so, he was violating decisions of the Seselj Trial Chamber.”

This was the second trial for contempt of the Tribunal against Seselj. In the first contempt case against him, completed on May 19, 2010, Seselj was convicted to 15 months of imprisonment for disclosing confidential information, which he will serve concurrently with the 18 months sentence he was convicted to today.

The third contempt case against Seselj, initiated on May 24, 2011, is currently underway, the Tribunal released.

Seselj is on trial for the crimes against humanity and violation of the laws and customs of war in Croatia, Vojvodina and Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1991-1993. The indictment was unsealed on February 14, 2003, and Seselj voluntarily turned himself into the ICTY ten days after that.