The prosecution started its case at the trial of the former chiefs of the Serbian state security in the absence of the first accused Jovica Stanisic. The hearing went on in closed session for the most part


The prosecution case at the trial of Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, former chiefs of the Serbian secret police, began shrouded in secrecy.

The first prosecution witness is testifying under pseudonym C-15 with image and voice distortion as protective measures. The witness confirmed that he had given statements to the OTP investigators in 1999 and 2000. Without disclosing any details about the contents, the prosecution tendered the statements into evidence. Not even a brief summary of the statements was read to give the public inkling as to what the witness's testimony would be about. In addition, during the examination-in chief the court often went into closed session, at the witness's request, which is not usual practice. The judges granted his requests without demur.

What could be understood from the few parts of the hearing open to the public was that the witness was a police officer in the so-called SAO Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem in the time relevant for the indictment. The prosecution showed several documents about incidents that happened in September and October 1991 in the Dalj police station jail. The witness confirmed that he knew what had happened. The indictment against Stanisic and Simatovic alleges that Arkan and his men killed 38 detained Croatian civilians in two separate incidents.

As the hearing today drew to a close, the witness said he had seen Jovica Stanisic ‘several times’ but he didn’t want to talk about that. When Judge Orie told the witness he couldn’t choose which questions to answer, C-15 described how he was present at a celebration attended by Milan Martic and Jovica Stanisic while he was visiting ‘the men from his sector’ in the police school in Golubic near Knin. The celebration was opened by Martic who introduced ‘my first and only commander, Mr. Jovica Stanisic aka ‘Ledeni’’. After that Stanisic addressed the commanders of the Krajina police stations. He made a ‘nice speech about how to act, how to look and how to cooperate with the UN’.

When the prosecution asked him about the meetings with Stanisic in Erdut, the witness asked for closed session. The judges granted the witness’s request and the hearing remained closed to the public. The judges didn’t even declare the session was over in public session.

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