Scorpions

It has been three-and-a-half years since the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY in The Hague closed, and the successor institution, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals is now finalising its last trial.

Another former member of a notorious Serbian paramilitary group has been released early from prison by a court in Belgrade having spent 12 years of a 15-year sentence for war crimes behind bars.

Miodrag Solaja fought with a unit known as the Scorpions during the 1998-99 war in Serbia's then southern province, Kosovo.

Two out of six Bosniak men from Srebrenica who were shot by members of the Scorpions paramilitary unit in 1995 have now been identified after their remains exhumed from a mass grave at Rogoj mountain pass in the Trnovo municipality in June last year, it was announced on Friday.

Veteran German rock band the Scorpions performed to an audience of more than 40,000 people at the Panathenaic Stadium (Kallimarmaro) on Monday night, accompanied by the Athens State Orchestra. Self-professed Hellenophiles, the band's lead singer Klaus Meine at one point in the performance borrowed a Greek flag from a fan in the crowd and wrapped himself in it. [EPA]

Roads in central Athens will be gradually closed to traffic from 6 p.m. on Monday due to a concert by veteran German rock band the Scorpions at the Panathenaic Stadium, also known as the Kallimarmaro.

Affected roads includes Ardittou, Vassileos Constantinou, Vassilissis Olgas and side streets leading off them.

Veteran rockers the Scorpions bring their Crazy World Tour to Greece this summer. The legendary German band, which has a huge fan base in Greece, will play for the first time at the Panathenaic Stadium, the historic venue where the first modern Olympics were held in 1896.

German musician Klaus Meine, lead singer of rock band Scorpions, attends a press conference in Athens, Tuesday, ahead of their concert at the historic Panathenaic Stadium or Kallimarmaro in Athens on July 16. [EPA]

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.

An ex-member of the ‘Scorpions’ paramilitaries told the Hague Tribunal that his unit and the ‘Tigers’ led by Zeljko Raznatovic, alias Arkan, were under the control of the Serbian security service in the Bosnian and Croatian wars.

Former Serbian State Security Service chief Jovica Stanisic’s defence told the UN court in The Hague that he never controlled the Scorpions paramilitary unit which committed crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.