Jovica Stanišić

Former Serbian State Security Service chief Jovica Stanisic’s defence denied that the Red Berets unit was controlled by the service when it allegedly committed crimes during the Bosnian war in 1993.

A former policeman told the Hague trial of former Serbian State Security chiefs Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic that the service’s Red Berets unit expelled Bosniaks from eastern Bosnia and burned their villages.

An ex-member of the Red Berets told the trial of former Serbian security chiefs Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic that members of the unit killed Bosniak civilians in the town of Bosanski Samac in 1992.

The UN court in The Hague has extended former Serbian State Security Service chief Jovica Stanisic’s temporary release for treatment in Belgrade until August 30 because of his continuing illness.

A prosecution witness told the trial of former Serbian State Security chiefs Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic that Serbian Red Berets paramilitaries killed Bosniaks and Croat captives in the town of Doboj in 1992.

Trial of Jovica Stanisic, former chief of Serbian security service, SDB, sees fresh arguments over whether its units aided the Bosnian Serb army in the ethnic cleansing of eastern Bosnia.

The defence for Jovica Stanisic denied that the Red Berets unit was associated with the Serbian State Security Service, SDB – while a Hague prosecution expert witness maintained that they were the Serbian service’s special forces.

A lawyer for former Serbian State Security chief Jovica Stanisic told his trial that the prosecution’s expert had not presented any evidence confirming ties between Serbian paramilitaries in Bosnia and the Serbian security service.

Former Serbian State Security chief Jovica Stanisic’s defence told his trial in The Hague that there was no evidence that paramilitary forces who committed war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia were under the service’s control.

Former Serbian State Security Service Jovica Stanisic’s defence denied that the ‘Tigers’ paramilitary unit led by Arkan and the ‘Scorpions’ fighters were commanded by Belgrade during the Croatian and Bosnian wars.