Vojislav Šešelj (born October 11, 1954 in Sarajevo) is a Serbian politician, the president of the Serbian Radical Party during the 1990s.

He graduated law at the University of Sarajevo , obtained a doctorate and taught political science there until 1984. That year the Communist authorities of Yugoslavia convicted him of "counter-revolutionary activities" and sentenced to eight years in prison, although the Supreme Court commuted the sentence and he was released in 1986.

In 1989, Šešelj went to the United States where pop Momčilo Đujić , a Chetnik leader from WWII, granted him the title voivod of the Chetniks.

Šešelj became a leader of the political party Serbian Renewal Movement (Srpski Pokret Obnove). A Serbian paramilitary formation called Beli Orlovi (White Eagles) was the military wing of the same party. These units reportedly committed various war crimes during the Yugoslav wars.

Šešelj later split off his faction into the Serbian Radical Party. They were amicable with Slobodan Milošević's Socialist Party of Serbia until September 1993 when he came in conflict with Milošević. Šešelj also landed in jail in 1994.

In 2003 he surrendered to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia on the indictment of "eight counts of crimes against humanity and six counts of violations of the laws or customs of war for his alleged participation in a joint criminal enterprise".

Šešelj became a known orator despite the fact he has a rather pronounced rhotacism.

External links

• Serbian radical party - official homepage
• ICTY indictment against Vojislav Šešelj