The UN court in The Hague sentenced the former head of the state security service of Yugoslavia, Jovica Stanisic, and his deputy, Frank Simatovich, to 15 years in prison. According to The Balkan Insight, they were found involved in the killings, deportations and inhuman treatment. In addition, the court considered that Stanisic and Simatovic played an important role in the conspiracy led by Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. His goal was ethnic cleansing against Croats and Bosnian Muslims.
The crimes in which the convicts were accused were committed in 1992 and 1995 on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In particular, in 1992, Serbian forces captured the town of Bosanski Šamac, after which six detention centers were set up there for Bosnians and Croats, where they were beaten and tortured. Robberies, rapes and extrajudicial executions of civilians were also committed in the city.
Litigation in the case of Stanisic and Simatovich has been going on since 2003, when the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at the UN secured their arrest and extradition to The Hague. Ten years later, the defendants were acquitted, but in 2015 the prosecution appealed this decision. In 2017, the tribunal completed its work, and the case was referred to the UN Court.
In 2021, the court sentenced both to 12 years in prison. The defendants appealed the verdict, and a new trial began. The verdict, passed on May 31, is final and not subject to appeal.
