After the ex-parte hearings in closed session this week, the trial of Jovica Stansic and Franko Simatovic, scheduled to start on 10 March 2008, was postponed for 17 March 2008


The trial of Jovica Stanisic, former chief of the Serbian state security service, and Franko Simatovic, former commander of the special operations unit, will open on Monday, 17 March 2008. There will be a pre-trial conference first, followed by the prosecution’s opening statement.

The trial was first scheduled to start on Monday, 10 March 2008 but the Trial Chamber today made public its decision to postpone it for a week; no explanation was given. The start was re-scheduled after the ex-parte hearings held this week in closed session. The hearings took four instead of two working days, as initially planned. The parties may have discussed the health of the accused Jovica Stanisic and the status of the case.

Stanisic and Simatovic are charged with crimes committed in Croatia and BH from the summer of 1991 to the end of 1995 by the ‘special units of the Serbian state security’ including the paramilitary formations organized, armed and managed by the State security. They are charged with persecution of non-Serb population on political, racial and religious grounds, killing, deportation and forcible transfer of population from large parts of Croatia and BH from May 1991 to December 1995.

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