Stanisic-Simatovic Trial Delayed Again

The trial of former Serbian security chiefs Jovica Stanisic and Frank Simatovic was rescheduled for a fourth time this week.



This time, the delay was due to technical problems with a video link being set up to allow Stanisic to follow the trial from prison.



The link should be ready by April 28, when the prosecution at the Hague tribunal is due to open its case.



Stanisic asked for a further postponement because that day is Easter Monday in the Christian Orthodox calendar. However, presiding judge Patrick Robinson denied his request.



Stanisic and Simatovic are indicted on five counts of murder, persecution, forced deportation and other inhuman acts during the 1991-95 war in former Yugoslavia.



According to the indictment, they provided logistic support for Serb paramilitary units – including Arkan’s Tigers, the Red Berets, the Scorpions and Martic’s militia – which carried out crimes against non-Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia.



Before his death, Milan Babic, the former leader of rebel Serbs in Croatia's Krajina region, testified that the two men were part of a parallel chain of command used by President Slobodan Milosevic to wage war while disguising official Serbian state involvement.



Babic, who committed suicide in the tribunal’s detention unit in March 2006, made a plea deal with prosecutors. As part of this, he appeared as a key witness at the trials of Milosevic, of the former leader of the rebel Serb authorities in Croatia Milan Martic, and of Bosnian Serb official Momcilo Krajisnik.



Stanisic and Simatovic have both pleaded not guilty to all charges against them.



The trial had already been postponed because Stanisic was suffering from depression and kidney stones. He has said he will not watch the trial via the video link.



Goran Jungvirth is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.