Dermot Groome, prosecutor at the Jovica Stanisicand Franko Simatovic trial

At the beginning of the closing arguments at the trial of former chiefs of the Serbian State Security Service, Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, prosecutor Dermot Groome said that the crimes alleged in the indictment were without a doubt committed as part of a joint criminal enterprise aimed at eliminating non-Serb population from large swathes of Croatian and BH territory. Groom contends that during the three years of the trial that began in June 2009 the prosecution has proven that the two accused were participants in that enterprise, together with Slobodan Milosevic, Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan, Radovan Stojicic Badza, Vojislav Seselj, Milan Martic and other officials in Serbia and Serb entities.

In its presentation, the prosecution listed the actions in Krajina, Eastern Slavonia and BH in which the personnel from Serbian DB-controlled units took part. The first were the attacks on Glina, Lovinac and Kijevo in the summer of 1991. Croats were made to move out and their houses were destroyed. It went on with the mass killings of civilians in Eastern Slavonia and then again in the Krajina villages of Bacin, Vukovici, Saborsko, Skabrnja and Nadin in the fall of 1991. Soon afterwards, there were crimes in Bijeljina, Zvornik, Bosanski Samac, Doboj and other places in BH. Finally, the crimes committed in 1995 by the units controlled by the accused – such as the murder of six Srebrenica youths in Trnovo and of dozens of civilians in Sanski Most – represent the final part of the implementation of the joint criminal enterprise, as the prosecution argued today.

Units under the Serbian State Security Service’s control such as the Red Berets, which were under Simatovic’s command, Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan’s Serb Volunteer Guard, the Scorpions led by Slobodan Medic Boca, took part in those crimes, the prosecution alleges. According to the prosecution, the Red Beret unit was established by the Serbian secret service in 1991 and operated under various guises until the end of the war in Croatia and BH. The accused controlled ‘Arkan’s men’ and the Scorpions and sent them to various battlefields, it was noted today. Members of those units were on the Serbian State Security Service’s payroll.

As prosecutor Adam Weber explained, the fact that those units participated in some actions under the command or together with the Serb armies, police or territorial defense in Krajina or Bosnia ‘doesn’t change their nature or negate their loyalty to the accused’. On the contrary, the evidence shows that even in those situations it was the accused who deployed them. As Weber argued, the fact that the units acted in concert with others only proves the existence of a joint criminal enterprise with the involvement of numerous units.

In their final briefs, the two accused tried to distance themselves from each other. Prosecutor Travis Faar noted that during the relevant time they had a close relationship. A number of photos of the two accused and the evidence of witnesses corroborated that claim. Prosecutor Faar recalled the evidence of their ties with other members of the joint criminal enterprise. The prosecution maintains that it has proven the link between Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic and the units that committed the gravest crimes against non-Serb civilians. The crimes were perpetrated as part of the plan to ethnically cleanse large swathes of Croatia and BH. Prosecutor Groome urged the Trial Chamber to find the accused guilty on all counts in the indictment. As for the sentence, prosecutor Groome asked the judges to bear in mind that the acts of the accused caused suffering of the thousands of victims that has continued to this day. According to Groome, the only adequate sentence for Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic is life imprisonment.

At the very end of the hearing the prosecutor expressed his gratitude to the witnesses that appeared in court during the trial. The prosecutor also thanked the authorities of the Republic of Serbia for making ‘a significant contribution to the effort to present the truth’ in the case against the two former chiefs of its secret service. The Republic of Serbia assisted in a number of ways, including the submission of documents. The prosecutor expressed his hope that the judgment ‘regardless of whether it is a conviction or acquittal’ would help the people in Serbia to understand the past events.

The defense teams of the two accused are scheduled to deliver their closing arguments tomorrow.

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