Del Ponte denies allegations of using threats

The former prosecutor of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, Carla Del Ponte, has dismissed accusations of intimidation brought by a Serb politician as “absurd”.

The claims were made by nationalist Serb politician Vojislav Seselj, who is on trial for alleged war crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal Court for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

In an interview with French-language Swiss television, Del Ponte denied putting pressure on witnesses. She is accused with two serving prosecutors, Hildegard Uertz-Retzlaff and Daniel Saxon.

“I am not personally under investigation. It is my investigators who are subject to a preliminary inquiry. If there is any truth, there will be a formal inquiry.”

Del Ponte, who is currently the Swiss ambassador in Argentina, said Seselj had “invented” things or had made the claims as a “tactic of defence”. But she was prepared to put herself at the disposal of the court.

She added that during her eight years and four months at the tribunal, she had never heard a witness say they had been threatened or intimidated.

The former tribunal chief prosecutor expressed “all her solidarity” with her former investigators, saying they were doing “difficult work”.

swissinfo.ch and agencies