Jovica Stanisic in the courtroom

The defense of the former chief of the Serbian State Security Service, Jovica Stanisic, claims that he hasn’t been getting adequate medical care in the UN Detention Unit in Scheveningen and blames the Tribunal’s Registrar for it. The defense lawyers claim that the Registrar has failed to ensure that the accused is able to receive appropriate ‘therapeutic and rehabilitative’ psychiatric care. According to the defense, the Registrar thus ‘violated his international legal obligations’. The defense urged the Trial Chamber to react ‘urgently and immediately’ in order to ensure appropriate psychiatric treatment for Jovica Stanisic.

In its motion filed today, the defense states that if the Registrar continues to be ‘unwilling or unable to provide measures to maintain or possibly improve’ the mental state of the accused, the Trial Chamber should order Stanisic’s ‘immediate and unconditional’ release which would make it possible for him to obtain medical help independent from the Tribunal and the Detention Unit.

The defense lawyers argue that Stanisic’s illness is exhausting and he cannot receive therapy without the Registry’s help. The defense lawyers asked the Trial Chamber to order the Registrar to provide to the accused the same level of medical service available to "ordinary European citizen" suffering from the same illnesses, and to investigate in detail the psychiatric treatment of the accused to date, any mistakes in the therapy and measures to be taken.

The defense then asked the judges to schedule a hearing to discuss the health of the accused and whether he was able to remain in the detention unit and participate in the rest of the trial.

Jovica Stanisic and his former associate in the Serbian State Security Service, Franko Simatovic, are on trial for the gravest war crimes against non-Serb civilians, including hundreds of murders perpetrated by the police and paramilitary troops under Stanisic’s and Simatovic’s control. The indictment alleges that the crimes were committed as part of a joint criminal enterprise aimed at ethnically cleansing large parts of Croatia and BH. The prosecution rested its case and the two accused have already called most of their evidence.

Sharing