Milica StojanovicBelgradeBIRNJanuary 25, 202316:23The prosecution appealed for former Serbian State Security officials Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic to be convicted of participating in a joint criminal enterprise to forcibly remove non-Serbs from parts of Croatia and Bosnia.
Jovica Stanisic (left) and Franko Simatovic on the second day of the appeal hearing in The Hague. Screenshot: irmct.org
The prosecution urged the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague on Wednesday to convict Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic of participating in a joint criminal enterprise, along with other Serb political, military and police officials, aimed at forcibly removing non-Serbs from large areas of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina during wartime.
Prosecutor Laurel Baig argued that evidence presented in the case “considered as a whole, proves beyond reasonable doubt that Stanisic and Simatovic did not just know about the shared intent of other JCE [joint criminal enterprise] members”.
“It proves that they too shared the intent to further the common criminal plan and it proves that they were JCE members,” Baig said.
As an example, Baig cited lists of Serbian Volunteer Guard paramilitary group members to be paid allowances by State Security. The Serbian Volunteer Guard was led by Zeljko ‘Arkan’ Raznatovic, also an alleged member of the joint criminal enterprise.
She said the lists “confirm that the SDG [Serbian Volunteer Guard] were paid regularly by the State Security during the time of the Sanski Most operation [in Bosnia in 1995]”.
“The evidence of State Security financial support to the SDG through the Sanski Most operation in 1995, during which they brutally persecuted, murdered and forcibly displaced the remaining non-Serbs eliminates all reasonable doubt that Stanisic’s and Simatovic’s conduct further the common criminal plan,” she added.
Stanisic and Simatovic were both powerful and widely-feared figures in the regime of Slobodan Milosevic, who is also an alleged member of the joint criminal enterprise.
Defence lawyer Wayne Jordash responding to the prosecution’s appeal. Screenshot: irmct.org
The two Serbian officials were convicted in July 2021 of assisting fighters from State Security’s Special Operations Unit, an armed police force known as the Red Berets, who committed crimes in the Bosanski Samac area during the Bosnian war.
It was the first-ever conviction of top Serbian officials for crimes during the wars that broke out during the break-up of Yugoslavia.
The verdict said that they “contributed to the furtherance of the common criminal purpose through organising the training of [Special Operations] Unit members and local Serb forces at the Pajzos camp and through their subsequent deployment during the takeover of Bosanski Samac municipality in April 1992”.
But it said that it had “not been proven beyond reasonable doubt that the accused shared the intent to further the common criminal purpose” and they could not be found guilty of participating in a joint criminal enterprise.
They were both sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Both the defence and the prosecution appealed against the 2021 verdict. The defence on Tuesday called for an acquittal, while the prosecution wants them to be convicted on more counts in the indictment, including participation in a joint criminal enterprise.
Responding to the prosecution’s appeal on Wednesday, Stanisic’s lawyer Wayne Jordash argued that the verdict found that only seven men on the Serbian Volunteer Guard list for ‘per diems’ payments from Serbian State Security were present in Sanski Most during the violence.
The courtroom during the Stanisic and Simatovic appeal hearing on Wednesday. Screenshot: irmct.org
“A large part of our defence case was focused on demonstrating how the SDG in fact supported their own operations … we discussed the range of really significant support that Arkan and the SDG received from others throughout 1991 and 1992 to 1995, weapons including tanks, huge sums of money, political support and so on,” Jordash told the court.
“Nothing close to this was found established in relation to the accused – per diem payments only,” he added.
Jordash further argued that the verdict points to “a conclusion that Arkan’s SDG whilst in Sanski Most were principally supported by other actors, including the RS MUP [Bosnian Serb Interior Ministry] and the VRS [Bosnian Serb Army]”.
When it came to Stanisic’s role in the payments as head of Serbian State Security, Jordash argued that “these payments were more consistent with personal favours than the chief of DB [State Security] heading out to the field to dole out pocket money to criminals”.
Simatovic’s lawyer Mihajlo Bakrac accused the prosecution of misrepresenting the trial chamber’s verdict.
“The trial chamber concluded, rightly, that this evidence is insufficient to establish the responsibility of the accused for financing Arkan and the SDG beyond a reasonable doubt,” Bakrac said.
The judge did not give a date for the verdict on the appeals, which is expected sometime later this year.
The proceedings in the case against the two men have continued for two decades so far. They were sent to The Hague in 2003 and were initially acquitted by the court in 2013.
The court’s appeals chamber overturned the acquittal verdict in 2015, ruling that serious legal and factual errors had been made, and their retrial started in 2017.
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