Stanisic Defence Dismiss Prosecution Case
Lawyer predicts that by the end of trial his client should be a free man.
Stanisic Defence Dismiss Prosecution Case
Lawyer predicts that by the end of trial his client should be a free man.
The defence for Jovica Stanisic opened their case at the Hague tribunal this week by saying that the prosecution's effort to prove their client’s guilt was based on "rumour, exaggeration and pure fabrication".
Stanisic, the former head of the State Security Service, DB, within Serbia’s ministry of interior, MUP, and Franko Simatovic, who was commander of the special operations unit of the DB, are facing charges of participating in a joint criminal enterprise with the aim of forcibly and permanently removing non-Serbs from large areas of Croatia and Bosnia, through the persecution, murder and deportation of Croat and Muslim populations.
The two have also been charged with helping to establish, supply with arms, and finance paramilitary groups which acted in close coordination with the Yugoslav People's Army, JNA, and the Serb Territorial Defence, TO, attacking towns and villages across Croatia and Bosnia and committing murder, rape and torture.
The prosecution concluded its case in April. Also that month, Simatovic asked the trial chamber to dismiss all charges against him, while Stanisic opted not to do so. In May, the chamber turned down Simatovic's request.
This week, the defence teams for Stanisic and Simatovic said they aimed to present 33 and 20 witnesses respectively. It was also decided by the chamber that each team would have about 70 court hours to present their case.
Simatovic's lawyer Mihajlo Bakrac declined to give an opening statement, saying "the research necessary for the preparations of their evidence was not yet concluded".
In the opening statement for Stanisic's defence, lawyer Wayne Jordash described the prosecution's effort to prove his client’s responsibility as "rumour, exaggeration and pure fabrication". "By the end of this trial, Stanisic should be a free man," Jordash said.
He said that the prosecution is trying to "say Stanisic is guilty not for what he did or what he didn't do, not for what the DB did, but for whatever the MUP did".
"Take, for example the crimes of the paramilitary unit of Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan. Arkan held close ties to Radmilo Bogdanovic and Radovan Stojicic Badza, but not with Stanisic," Jordash said.
Bogdanovic was Serbia's then interior minister, and Badza his assistant for public security.
"Rather than what is claimed by the indictment, the DB tried to prevent the formation and activity of paramilitary formations, not to form or support them,” the lawyer said.
"The defendant did not know every individual employed by the service which he headed. He could not have possibly had control over thousands of people, not even over Mr Simatovic."
Stanisic's defence also referred to an alleged speech made by Simatovic during a ceremony at a training camp in Kula, in Serbia, in 1997. The prosecution has referred to this speech as a key part of evidence against the two, since it proved the role of the Red Berets, as the DB's special operations units was known.
Stanisic's defence described this speech as a "senseless fabrication, like from a bad Hollywood movie, of a man who had just come out from the war and was striking his chest to prove how strong he is".
During this speech, Simatovic is said to claim that the DB had controlled some 5000 active combatants during fighting in Croatia in 1991, in the Krajina area, when a large number of towns were placed under Serb control. He also said to have used the speech to claim that the DB's activity was connected to fulfilling the "strategic goals of the Serbian people" and that the DB had founded "26 training camps" in those areas of Croatia and Bosnia which were under Serb control.
Jordash also stated that the defence would resort to "statements by former DB employees" to "remove the mask from the myths surrounding the Red Berets".
Referring to the prosecution's claim that the Red Berets founded their first camp in the summer of 1990 in Golubic, a village in the Krajina area of western Croatia, Jordash said that it was true, and that those who attended this camp "later went on to serve as professional volunteers... in other areas".
He, however, added that this training camp was "in no way connected to the DB itself, even less with the individuals who thought they would increase their fame on the frontline by claiming they were under DB command, but were rather under command of the army and police forces of the Serbs in Krajina and Bosnia".
Stanisic and Simatovic, arrested by Serbian authorities on June 13,2003, have both pleaded not guilty.
The trial continues next week, with the appearances of the first witnesses for the Stanisic defence.
Velma Saric is an IWPR-trained journalist in Sarajevo.
