The UN court in The Hague will hand down its verdict in the war crimes retrial of Serbian State Security officials Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic after they appealed against their initial conviction.
Ahead of the appeal in the Hague court’s trial of former Serbian State Security chiefs Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, the widow of a man killed by Serb fighters operating in Bosnia in 1995 said she wants to see justice done.
New president of UN war crimes court says oral hearing on the appeal on the guilty verdict against Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic will be held in January.
The UN court will rule in about a year’s time on Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic’s appeal against their conviction for aiding and abetting crimes committed by a Serbian State Security Service special unit during the Bosnian war.
In November 2001, the Serbian State Security Service’s Special Operations Unit staged a mutiny and set up roadblocks. The failure to punish the instigators of the armed revolt would have deadly consequences for the country’s prime minister.
Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, who were convicted of aiding war crimes committed by Serbian fighters during the Bosnian conflict, claimed there was not enough evidence to declare them guilty and called for their sentences to be overturned.
The recently-published verdict in the trial of wartime Serbian security chiefs Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic shows how despite its denials, the Serbian state supported fighting units that committed crimes during the wars in Croatia and Bosnia.
War survivors in Bosanski Samac still remember the brutality of Serbian State Security fighters deployed to their town in 1992, where they committed crimes that eventually led to landmark convictions this week for the security service’s top officials.
As the UN court prepares to rule on whether the Serbian State Security Service chiefs Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic illegally controlled wartime paramilitary units, BIRN looks at how they were deployed in the Croatian and Bosnian conflicts.
Former Serbian state security officials Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic will hear the judgment in The Hague this week in their retrial for masterminding the most notorious Serb combat units that fought in the Croatian and Bosnian wars.