Suljagić on the verdict: There was a plan to eliminate the Bosniak population

(Patria) - Director of the Srebrenica Memorial Center Emir Suljagić commented after today's final verdict for Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović.

"The verdict for Stanišić and Simatović is important: 1) because it was confirmed that a plan to eliminate the Bosniak population existed throughout the entire aggression, and 2) because the convicted were the highest leaders of what is still the main instrument of Serbia's policy in the region today," Suljagić stated.

The Appeals Chamber today handed down a guilty verdict to Stanišić and Simatović, sentencing them to 15 years in prison, and they were convicted of a joint criminal enterprise, murders, persecution, and deportations of the non-Serb population in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"The Appeals Chamber found that Stanišić and Simatović are responsible as members of a joint criminal enterprise for the crimes committed by Serbian forces in 1992 in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Bijeljina, Zvornik, Bosanski Šamac, Doboj, and Sanski Most, and for the crimes committed in 1995 in Trnovo and Sanski Most. They were also found responsible for the murder committed in Daljska Planina in Croatia in June 1992," the verdict states.