UN Court Frees Serbian Security Chiefs Before Trial

The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague has ordered that Stanisic and Simatovic be provisionally released, according to a decision published on Tuesday.

“The trial chamber does not consider that the seriousness of the allegations against Simatovic and that a retrial was ordered on all counts of the indictment heighten the risk that he may abscond,” the decision said.

“The trial chamber further notes the lack of any indication that, if granted provisional release, Simatovic would interfere with the administration of justice,” it added.

It gave the same reasons for Stanisic’s provisional release.

Both men have been told to report to a local police station in Belgrade every day and surrender their passports to the Serbian justice ministry.

Their release date has not yet been made public, and the trial chamber is yet to decide when they must to the detention centre in The Hague.

Stanisic and Simatovic pleaded not guilty on December 18, after the UN court’s appeals chamber overturned their previous acquittal and ordered a complete retrial.

It ruled that there were serious legal and factual errors when Stanisic and Simatovic were acquitted of war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2013.

The case is now being handled by the UN Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, MICT, which is taking over the ICTY’s remaining cases as it prepares to close in 2017.

It is expected that witnesses will start testifying in their retrial next year, but the date of the first hearing has not yet been set.

Stanisic, the former chief of the Serbian State Security Service, and Simatovic, a former Serbian State Security Service official, are accused of being part of a joint criminal enterprise aimed at forcibly and permanently removing non-Serbs from large areas of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1991 to 1995.

According to the indictment, they were the key men in charge of secret armed units which were not legally authorized by the Serbian authorities to undertake special military operations.

During their existence from 1991 until 2003, these units had various names – the Knindze (‘Ninjas’ from the town of Knin), the Scorpions, Arkan’s Tigers, the Red Berets and the Special Operations Unit – and were known for their brutal fighting methods.

The Hague Tribunal judges ruled in 2013 that the units committed the crimes that were listed in the indictment, but said that Stanisic and Simatovic could not be held criminally responsible for them.

The 2013 verdict also said that the prosecutor had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Stanisic or Simatovic planned or ordered the units’ crimes.

However the appeals chamber ruled that the initial verdict was incorrect in insisting that the men could only be guilty if they ‘specifically directed’ the crimes.