Simatovic Lawyer Denies he Brought Arms to Croatian Serbs
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RFJ-066, who was a member of the police in the self-proclaimed Serbian Autonomous Region, SAO, of Krajina at that time and a close associate to the Krajina interior minister, Milan Martic, stuck to his testimony, however.
Claiming that Simatovic could not have passed numerous check-points that were set up in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia in a police vehicle loaded with rifles, Barkac asked the witness to specify which road Stanisic took to get to Knin.
“I do not know which road they took. There were a hundreds of them,” RFJ-066 told the UN court in the Hague on Wednesday, testifying from a trans-oceanic country via video link, with his face blurred and voice pixelated.
Simatovic’s lawyer responded by saying there was only one road to Knin, via Bosansko Grahovo and Strmica, but this did not unsettle the witness.
RFJ-066 stuck to his claim that civilian licence plates were put on the two SUVs, which Simatovic used to bring the weapons to Knin. He was unable to recall what licence plates were used on the SUVs during the journey to Knin, however.
Much of the cross-examination of the witness took place behind closed doors to protect his identity. Simatovic’s attorney will continue examining witness RFJ-066.
During his main testimony in mid-July, the same witness said that, acting through his assistant Simatovic, the chief of the Serbian SDB, Jovica Stanisic, armed, trained and controlled Serbian units in SAO Krajina that then expelled local Croats, committing crimes against them, from 1990 to 1992.
The UN court charges Simatovic and his boss, Stanisic, with the persecution, murder, deportation and forcible resettlement of Croat and Muslim civilians during the wars in Croatia and Bosnia from 1991 to 1995.
They are charged with crimes against humanity on four counts and with violation of the laws and customs of war under the fifth count.
The prosecutors allege that Stanisic and Simatovic committed these crimes while executing a joint criminal enterprise aimed at permanently and forcibly removing Croats and Muslims from large parts of Croatia and Bosnia, for the sake of achieving Serb domination.
According to the prosecutors, Serbia’s late president, Slobodan Milosevic, led the joint criminal enterprise.
Following a one-month break, only Simatovic is attending the continuation of the trial, as the trial chamber granted temporary release to Stanisic until September 27. He has given up his right to attend the trial and will be represented by his lawyers.
According to doctors in The Hague and Belgrade, Stanisic suffers from a chronic intestinal disease and from depression.
