The UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) in The Hague on Wednesday passed the final verdict over two Serbian former intelligence officers, Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, increasing their prison terms to 15 years
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st May, 2023) The UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) in The Hague on Wednesday passed the final verdict over two Serbian former intelligence officers, Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, increasing their prison terms to 15 years.
In 2021, following a retrial, the IRMCT sentenced Stanisic and Simatovic to 12 years in prison each.
"The Appeals Chamber ... dismissed Mr. Stanisic's and Mr. Simatovic's appeals against their respective sentences of 12 years of imprisonment ... The Appeals Chamber increased Mr. Stanisic's and Mr. Simatovic's sentences to 15 years of imprisonment," the IRMCT said in a statement.
Former Serbian State Security chief Stanisic and his former deputy Simatovic were initially acquitted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 2013 over crimes against humanity and violation of laws and customs of war during the conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 1990s. In June 2017, the court's appeals chamber overturned the acquittal verdict, ruling that serious legal and factual errors had been made, and a retrial was initiated, which Serbian President Alexandar Vucic called disgraceful. Both Stanisic and Simatovic always pleaded not guilty to all charges.
From 1991-1998, Stanisic was State Security chief of the Serbian Interior Ministry, and Simatovic was a commander of a special operation unit and was deemed one of the closest allies of former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic.
Stanisic and Simatovic were charged with repressions against Croatian and Muslim citizens of former Yugoslavia on an ethnic, religious and political basis as well as with forcible removal of non-Serbs from large areas of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both Stanisic and Simatovic allegedly organized, financed, trained and had full control over Serbian paramilitary forces that committed the crimes.
Doctors at the IRMCT medical facility established that Simatovic suffers from chronic digestive system disease and depression.
Both defendants were temporarily released on December 22, 2015 and lived in Serbia.
