Judges Seek Serbian Response on Defendants' Temporary Release

Friday, 9 March, 2012

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Velma Šarić

IWPR-trained journalist

As the Hague tribunal makes plans to temporarily release two defendants, Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, judges are pressing the authorities in Serbia to come back to them on arrangements for the men’s one-month stay in the country.

According to the tribunal’s rules, accused persons cannot be granted provisional release unless the country where they are going can guarantee that they will return to The Hague, and that they will not cause harm to any witness.

Judges presiding in the Stanisic and Simatovic trial have asked Serbia to respond within ten days and state its position on the men’s provisional release, scheduled for April.

Stanisic’s defence team had previously informed the chamber that “for reasons unknown”, Belgrade had not responded to a request they made relating to the defendant’s possible release from March 30 to April 29. Simatovic’s defence requested the provisional release for the same period, and it too received no response from Serbia.

Simatovic and Stanisic, both former officers in Serbia’s State Security service, are on trial facing charges that they participated in a joint criminal enterprise intended to forcibly and permanently remove non-Serbs from large areas of Croatia and Bosnia through persecution, murder and deportation.

Stanisic served as the security agency’s head from 1991 to 1998, and Simatovic worked under his command as head of a special forces unit known as JSO or the Red Berets.

According to the indictment, Stanisic and Simatovic established, organised and financed training centres for paramilitary units from Serbia, which were then sent into Croatia and Bosnia, where they committed crimes and forced non-Serb populations out of towns and villages which they took control of.

Rachel Irwin is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.