The trial date for the Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic case has not yet been set although at the last status conference it was said that the trial of the former heads of the Serbian State Security Service might begin in the summer of 2007. The prosecution estimates its case might last about five months


It is still not certain when the trial of Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic will begin, the pre-trial judge Alphons Orie said today at the status conference in the case against the two former heads of the Serbian State Security Service. According to Orie, the Trial Chamber will be able to give a more accurate estimate for the start of the trial in the next three weeks, after it receives all the necessary information.

As Judge Orie noted, the case is ‘basically ready to proceed to trial’. The main problem is the huge number of documents – hundreds of them – the prosecution has received from the Archive of the Republic of Serbia that have yet to be translated. As the prosecutor Ms. Brehmeier explained, the Stanisic and Simatovic case ‘isn’t on the priority list of the translation service’, which is focusing on translations for the ongoing trials and the up-coming trial of Momcilo Perisic, former chief of the VJ General Staff.

The prosecution announced that it expected it would need 250 hours or about five months to present its case. The time needed will depend on the health of Jovica Stanisic, discussed in closed session.

The Chamber made a request to the OTP this week, urging it ‘to suggest a way in which the scope of the indictment against Stanisic and Simatovic might be reduced’. The prosecution hasn’t yet stated its views on this request.

The prosecution charges Stanisic and Simatovic in five counts with persecution, killing and forcible deportation of the non-Serbian population in Croatia and BH from May 1991 to December 1995. As alleged by the prosecution, these crimes were committed by the units under the control of the Serbian State Security Service.

Sharing