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AFP. 27 March 2002. Milosevic gets new setback in his anti-trial campaign. STRASBOURG -- Slobodan Milosevic was dealt another setback in his bid for freedom on Wednesday when Europe's top human rights court refused to hear his case. The ruling appears to end the former Yugoslav president's bid to have his historic war crimes trial in The Hague, which could put him behind bars for the rest of his life, overturned outright. The European Court of Human Rights said Milosevic's petition to have the trial thrown out was inadmissible because he had failed to exhaust his legal options in the Netherlands. The 60-year-old former Serb leader first filed suit in a Dutch court last year after his surprise arrest and extradition from Belgrade, which turned him over to the UN war crimes tribunal. He claimed that his arrest in Belgrade, his detention in a prison outside The Hague and the trial itself were all illegal, and that he should be allowed to walk free. The Netherlands court rejected his claim, and Milosevic took his case on to the Dutch court of appeal. He then withdrew that appeal and went directly to the European court, which since 1959 has ruled on violations of the European convention on human rights signed after World War II. But the European court ruled on Wednesday that Milosevic had failed to use up his options in the Netherlands legal system, and that it therefore could not accept his petition. It said in a brief statement that his suit "had to be dismissed in its entirety for non-exhaustion of domestic remedies." Milosevic and his supporters have repeatedly blasted his prosecution as a show trial, claiming he is being made a scapegoat to cover up NATO crimes committed in 1999 in the Kosovo war. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
