UN appeals court extends sentences of 2 Serbs convicted of crimes during Balkan wars

By Talha Ozturk

BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) - A UN court decided Wednesday to extend the sentences of two allies of the late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic for their involvement in crimes against humanity during the Balkan wars.

The Appeals Chamber of the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals rejected the appeals by Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic against their 12-year convictions in 2021 and increased their sentences to 15 years each.

Stanisic, the former head of the State Security Service, and former special operations unit chief Simatovic were found guilty of aiding and abetting murder, deportation and crimes against humanity in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia from 1991-1995.

The appeals chamber quashed parts of the 2021 verdict that acquitted Stanisic and Simatovic of participating in certain murders, exiles and crimes against humanity from 1991-1995 and ruled that they should also be punished for participation in these crimes.

In a statement, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “takes note of this appeal and extends his thoughts to the victims and survivors and their families who have suffered from the crimes for which both defendants have been found guilty.”

Officials in Bosnia and Herzegovina welcomed the decision, saying it reveals the reality of the attacks on Bosnia and Herzegovina

"Today's decision is extremely important because it has been proven that the officials of the Serbian State Security Agency were directly involved in the attacks in Bosnia and Herzegovina,'' said Denis Becirovic, the Bosniak member of the Presidential Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Croat member of the council, Zeljko Komsic, said that "justice has been served" against those who supported the "Greater Serbia" project in the 1990s.

Stanisic and Simatovic were first captured in 2003 as part of an operation codenamed "Sword" by the Serbian police and transferred to The Hague the same year.

The trial of the duo, who claimed they were innocent in their first hearing, started in 2009, and a total of 95 witnesses were heard.

In its indictment, the Prosecutor's Office of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) demanded life sentences for the two defendants and accused them of committing crimes against humanity, violating the rules of war, committing massacres in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and deporting people by force.

The court, which postponed the hearings several times due to health problems, gave a verdict of acquittal in 2013 for the two defendants, who were accused of participating in a massacre that cost the lives of thousands of people during the war in Bosnia, due to a lack of evidence.

The Prosecutor's Office appealed against the court's acquittal on June 28, 2013, demanding that the Appeals Council hold Stanisic and Simatovic responsible for all charges in the indictment.

The ICTY ordered a retrial of Stanisic and Simatovic in 2015, which began in 2017. After the ICTY ceased operations in 2017, the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals took over the case.

The appeals ruling brings to an end the longest-running war crimes prosecution dating back to the Balkan wars of the early 1990s.

Milosevic was put on trial for his alleged involvement in fomenting the bloody conflicts that erupted as Yugoslavia crumbled, but he died in his cell in 2006 before any verdicts could be reached.

The mechanism’s chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, hailed what he called a “really important” ruling.

“This is the only decision we have with officials from Belgrade convicted as part of the joint criminal enterprise,” he said.

Stanisic was in court for the hearing, while Simatovic watched by video link from a UN detention unit.