Lawyers Urge Dutch Court to Free Milosevic From Tribunal

THE HAGUE — Lawyers for Slobodan Milosevic challenged his detention by the U.N. war crimes tribunal, telling a Dutch court Thursday that the ousted Yugoslav president had been “kidnapped” and should be set free at once.

“The Dutch state is at least co-responsible for kidnapping the defendant and other human rights violations,” said Dutch lawyer Erik Hummels, arguing for the ex-leader, who is charged with crimes against humanity for atrocities committed in 1999 in Kosovo, a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia’s main republic.

Milosevic’s lawyers say his transfer to the tribunal in The Hague in June by the Belgrade reformists who defeated him in elections last year breached the Yugoslav and Serbian constitutions.

They insist that the tribunal, established by the U.N. Security Council, is illegal and has no jurisdiction over the deposed leader.

“The Yugoslavia tribunal is void. Only the Dutch legal system applies to the defendant,” said Hummels, one of three Dutch lawyers arguing for Milosevic’s release.

Hummels told the district court that the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia was “a no-good judicial institution that is repressive and is steered by NATO.”

Lawyers for the Dutch state defended the tribunal’s legitimacy, saying it was founded according to the principles of the rule of law and internationally recognized human rights.

The lawyers for Milosevic spoke for three hours, quoting from 80 pages of arguments. After the hearing, they offered to sell copies of the documents to reporters for $12.

“The money will go to a Yugoslavia fund for the victims of NATO’s aggression,” lawyer Nico Steijnen said.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization launched a bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999 following a Serbian crackdown against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

The Dutch judge will issue his ruling next Friday, a day after Milosevic is to appear before the tribunal.