Trial of Stanišić and Simatović resumes after six months

SARAJevo, (Patria) - The trial of former heads of the Serbian State Security Service (SDB) Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović has resumed before the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Courts (IRMCT) after a break of almost six months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The previous hearing was held in March, while Jovica Stanišić, who was temporarily released due to health problems, did not attend today's hearing, BIRN BiH reports.

As part of measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus, all attendees in the courtroom sat separately behind transparent screens and wore masks.

"We were last together in this courtroom on March 11. We planned to hear one more witness then, before the Easter break, to allow Simatović's Defence to re-evaluate and reduce the list of witnesses," said presiding judge Burton Hall at the beginning of the hearing.

But these plans were changed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic, which restricted international travel and halted the proceedings, he added.

Jovica Stanišić, former head of the Serbian SDB, and Franko Simatović, former commander of the Special Operations Unit (JSO) of the SDB, are accused of participating in a joint criminal enterprise led by the then-Serbian President Slobodan Milošević, whose goal was to remove Bosniaks and Croats from parts of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to establish an ethnically pure Serbian state.

In December 2015, after the Appeals Chamber of the Hague Tribunal rejected the first-instance acquittal verdict, Stanišić and Simatović pleaded not guilty to the crimes they were accused of.

A Defence witness stated at today's hearing that the SDB did not have as many soldiers for operations in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina as Simatović claimed at a ceremony in 1997.

"I was stunned by the incredible information I heard from Franko Simatović at that time," said the witness, retired SDB member Vojislav Cvetković.

"It all seemed like an exaggeration intended to impress the President (Milošević)," Cvetković added.

The speech Simatović gave in front of numerous high-ranking officials (including Milošević) at the training center "Kula" in May 1997 is one of the key pieces of evidence for the Prosecution in the retrial.

The prosecutor quoted part of Simatović's speech, which states that Serbian units "successfully participated in six joint operations" in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Cvetković emphasized that he was a member of the SDB from the seventies until October 1998. He was retired immediately after Stanišić was dismissed from duty.

His main job was related to communications surveillance and wiretapping.

The trial continues tomorrow, September 2.