Milorad Lekovic, defence witness of Jovica Stanisic

Defense witness Milorad Lekovic claimed in his testimony that Jovica Stanisic was ‘sidelined’ in the Serbian State Security Service in 1991. Prosecutor Marcus today tried to prove that the accused was in fact very active at that time. Lekovic was chief of the Belgrade Center of the State Security Service. In his evidence yesterday, Lekovic claimed that from April to October 1991 Stanisic fell from grace with his chief Zoran Janackovic and was unable to do his regular job as the assistant chief for counter-intelligence.

In a bid to corroborate the argument that Stanisic was a de facto No.1 man in the service in December 1991, long before his formal appointment as the chief of the Serbian State Security Service, the prosecutor put it to the witness that Stanisic, already an experienced intelligence officer, managed to perform his regular duties behind Janackovic’s back. In fact, he did more than that, the prosecutor insisted. According to the prosecution exhibits and the evidence of witnesses from several trials before the Tribunal, in the spring and summer of 1991 Stanisic met several times with Slobodan Milosevic, Goran Hadzic, Milan Martic, Milan Babic, Radovan Karadzic and other officials from Serbia and other Serb entities west of the Drina river. The meetings took place in Belgrade, Knin, Sarajevo and Eastern Slavonia.

At a meeting with the interior minister Radmilo Bogdanovic and two State Security Service employees, Stanisic discussed the establishment of the Serb police in the so-called SAO Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srijem. The evidence showed that the second-accused Franko Simatovic attended some of those meetings, the prosecutor argued. Stanisic and Simatovic are charged with the crimes the police and paramilitary forces committed against the non-Serbs in Croatia and BH.

Lekovic replied, ‘it is not my duty, and I was not interested’ to learn where the assistant chief of the service went and whom he met although at that time Lekovic was appointed the head of the internal commission which was to investigate Stanisic’s activities and to verify whether Stanisic or anyone else leaked classified information to the press. In the examination-in chief Lekovic was adamant that the accused did not do any tasks related to the state security. Today however Lekovic admitted that in that period he ‘had no direct knowledge’ of Stanisic’s activities.

In the re-examination by the defense, the witness went back to his initial story of Stanisic as an employee who was ‘sidelined’ in the service. Lekovic said that Stanisic couldn’t do the job because ‘his ability to act competently and to participate in team work in the service leadership was reduced’. As Lekovic put it, Stanisic was on ‘stand by’.

As the hearing drew to a close, Stanisic’s defense called its next witness. Vladimir Corbic is the former State Security Service officer in charge of the Sandzak area. Corbic will continue his evidence tomorrow.

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