Simatovic Acquittal Plea Rejected
Judge says defendant has a case to answer on all counts of the indictment against him.
Simatovic Acquittal Plea Rejected
Judge says defendant has a case to answer on all counts of the indictment against him.
Judges at the Hague tribunal this week dismissed former Serbian intelligence official Franko Simatovic’s request to acquit him on all five counts of his indictment.
Simatovic, who performed various intelligence roles in Serbia’s State Security Service, DB, is indicted alongside former DB chief Jovica Stanisic on five counts of murder, persecution, forced deportation and other inhuman acts that were committed during the war in the former Yugoslavia.
According to the indictment, the two men provided logistical, financial and material support for Serb paramilitary units – including Arkan’s Tigers, the Red Berets, and the Scorpions – which carried out crimes against non-Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia.
The bench’s May 5 oral decision was delivered in accordance with tribunal rules, specifically Rule 98bis, which allows defendants to request an acquittal after the prosecution has rested its case. The judges may enter an acquittal on one or more counts if there is no evidence to support them.
While Simatovic elected to present a 98bis argument, Stanisic decided against it. His lawyer, Wayne Jordash, said this was because defendants can only challenge entire counts in the indictment according to the 98 bis rule – and not “individual charges or discreet liabilities”.
Both defendants were present in the courtroom this week as Presiding Judge Alphons Orie read out the decision, during which he referred to witness testimony about a variety of crimes in Croatia and Bosnia.
One witness, who was taken prisoner in Croatia in 1991, said that Zeljko Raznatovic, otherwise known as Arkan, “watched soldiers beat prisoners with iron chairs until the chairs fell apart”, the judge read.
Arkan was the leader of Arkan’s Tigers, a paramilitary group alleged to have been a special unit of the DB.
Arkan’s Tigers were considered one of most notorious paramilitary groups that operated in Bosnia and Croatia during the conflict, and they are alleged to have murdered scores of non-Serb civilians in various areas. Arkan was gunned down in a Belgrade hotel in 2000 before he could be arrested and tried in The Hague.
Judge Orie said that the evidence presented by the prosecution showed that “as early as May 1991 Arkan directly answered to Jovica Stanisic”.
“Between 1991 and 1995 a relationship [was] maintained between Arkan and the Serbian DB,” the judge continued.
He added that “the evidence indicates direct and close coordination between Simatovic and Arkan” about the deployment of Arkan’s men.
The Red Berets, also known as the Special Operations Unit of the DB, “answered directly” to Simatovic, the judge said.
“In Bosnia, the Red Berets committed some of crimes charged at Doboj and Bosanski Samac [municipalities],” Judge Orie continued. “…[Simatovic] personally briefed them at training camp in 1992 while wearing a red beret.”
In addition, the judge said the evidence “supports the conclusion” that the Red Berets were “under the overall command of the accused Simatovic who was in turn under the supervision of [the accused] Stanisic”.
There was also evidence showing that the Serbian interior ministry sent the Red Berets, the Scorpions and Arkan’s Tigers to Trnovo, near Sarajevo, to assist the Bosnian Serb army in the summer of 1995, the judge said. He added that Simatovic “personally requested” Arkan’s help in Trnovo.
In July 1995, members of the Scorpions shot and murdered six Bosniak men and boys who were captured after the fall of the Srebrenica enclave in July 1995. A videotape of the murders – shot by the perpetrators - caused an outrage when it was broadcast on television across the region in 2005, and in 2007 a Serbian court found four members of the Scorpions guilty of murder.
Judge Orie referred to this video, and noted that the victims were non-Serbs.
He said there was sufficient evidence for the two counts of murder in the indictment to stand, as well as the counts of persecution, deportation and forcible transfer.
In terms of the training camps that Simatovic and Stanisic are accused of establishing, the judge said the court had heard evidence that “between three and five thousand men” passed through the training centre in Golubic, near the Croatian town of Knin.
“The prosecution led evidence that this training camp was funded by the Serbian DB and that Stanisic and Simatovic ensured the training camp would receive necessary material and financial means,” Judge Orie said.
One witness testified that Simatovic “took care” of paying the salaries for everyone involved in Golubic, he said.
There was thus sufficient evidence showing that Simatovic provided financial support and other training to “special units of the Serbian DB and other Serb forces in the commission of crimes charged” in the indictment, Judge Orie said.
Simatovic and Stanisic are also accused of being part of a Joint Criminal Enterprise, JCE, along with several other members of the Serb leadership.
Judge Orie said that the evidence so far supports the allegation that there was a “common plan or purpose to permanently remove Muslims and Croats from areas of Bosnia and Croatia.”
Simatovic was part of this common plan, and his “participation in the JCE amounted to a significant contribution to the crimes charged,” Judge Orie continued.
“In conclusion, Simatovic has a case to answer on all counts of the indictment. The motion for acquittal is denied.”
A pre-defence case conference will take place on June 14.
Rachel Irwin is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.
