The former heads of the State Security Service (SDB) of Serbia, Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović, were each sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Courts in The Hague issued a final verdict on Wednesday, May 31, in which they were found guilty of crimes in Bijeljina, Zvornik, Doboj, Trnovo and Sanski Most.
Thus, part of the appeal of the Prosecutor's Office was accepted.
On June 30, 2021, in a repeated trial, Stanišić and Simatović were sentenced to 12 years in prison each for crimes in Bosanski Šamac, for aiding and abetting the persecution, murder, deportation and forced relocation of Muslims and Croats from this small town in the north of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in spring of 1992.
It was established that the crimes in that municipality were committed by the special unit of the Serbian forces "Red Berets", which was under the control of Stanišić and Simatović.
During the sentencing of Stanišić and Simatović, the court described the crimes committed on the territory of Bosanski Šamac, after it was occupied by Serbian forces, including paramilitary formations, in April 1992.
What did the prosecution and the defense complain about?
In the appeal against the first-instance verdict, pronounced during the repeated proceedings, the Prosecution asked that Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović be convicted of the joint criminal enterprise (UZP) in which the former president Slobodan Milošević and other high officials of Serbia were involved.
It was also requested that they be convicted for crimes committed, not only in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also in Croatia, during the wars in the early 1990s.
In addition, the prosecutor's office requested that the former heads of the SDB of Serbia be convicted for crimes in other municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, for which they were previously acquitted, and not only for crimes in Bosanski Šamac.
The position of the Prosecution is that Stanišić and Simatović should be sentenced to a much longer prison term.
During the appeal hearing, held at the end of January 2023, Stanišić's defense asserted that "Stanišić was proven to be a key peacemaker" during the wars in the former Yugoslavia, and requested acquittal or, alternatively, a reduction of the sentence.
The trial of Stanišić and Simatović was repeated, because the appellate judges in the second-instance verdict in the first trial cited the concept of "specific orientation" in the verdict, which the court called "a fabrication in international law."
The case against the former head of the State Security Service (SDB) Jovica Stanišić and Simatović, who was the commander of the Special Operations Unit of the SDB, is being conducted before the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Courts (IMCR), the successor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). .
Graciela Gatti Santana, president of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Courts (IMCR), is the chairperson of the judicial council.
The other judges are Lee G. Muthoga, Aminatta Lois Runeni N'gum, Yusuf Aksar and Claudia Hoefer.
The trial of Stanišić and Simatović began before the ICTY in 2003.
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