Milan Babic in the courtroom

At the trial of Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, Judge Orie’s trial chamber granted the prosecution’s request to admit into evidence 98 excerpts from the transcripts of the testimony given by the late Milan Babic at the trials of Slobodan Milosevic, Momcilo Krajisnik and Milan Martic, and the video recordings of the evidence. The decision was made under Rule 98 quater, which allows the admission of previous testimony of persons who died in the meantime or are unavailable for other reasons.

The prosecution’s motion, filed in May 2007, notes that Babic’s testimony is relevant because it has to do with the activities related to the joint criminal enterprise to ethnically cleanse non-Serbs from large swathes of Croatia and BH. In addition to Stanisic and Simatovic, the list of participants in the joint criminal enterprise included the former Krajina Serb president, Milan Babic, who pleaded guilty to persecution and was sentenced to 13 years in prison. In March 2006, he committed suicide in the UN Detention Unit in The Hague.

The defense of the accused opposed the admission of Babic’s testimony, saying it would jeopardize their right to cross-examine witnesses, and that portions of the testimony spoke about the acts and conduct of the accused; under the Rule 92 quater, this might prevent the admission. As the defense contends, Babic’s testimony is ‘the only or key evidence’ against the accused, and that is why it should not be admitted without cross-examination. According to the defense, the cross-examination by Milosevic ‘was not good enough’.

Accepting the prosecution’s arguments, the Trial Chamber notes that the evidence given by the former RSK president is relevant because it contains detailed information about the financial aid and arms shipments from Belgrade to the Krajina Serbs and the role played in the field by the units which operated under the auspices of the accused, as the indictment alleges, such as the Territorial Defense and the Krajina police. Babic also spoke about the existence of ‘parallel structures in Krajina’ which involved the accused, the judges say.

The Chamber notes that Babic testified under oath at the three trials and that all the defense teams cross-examined him on the issues related to the joint criminal enterprise that Stanisic and Simatovic are charged with. The judges will, however, take into account the quality of the cross-examination when they consider what weight to give the evidence. The fact that portions of Babic’s testimony deal with the acts and conduct of the accused, the judges believe, is not automatically an obstacle for their admission into evidence. Some of the allegations have to do with the role the accused played in the establishment of volunteer units in Krajina, and Babic described Stanisic as ‘number two man’ in Milosevic’s chain of command.

This is the third time that evidence is admitted under Rule 92 quater at the trial of the two former chiefs of the Serbian state security service. The transcripts of earlier testimony by former police chief in Bosanski Samac, Stevan Todorovic, and former head of the Bratunac SDS, Miroslav Deronjic have already been admitted into evidence.

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