Serbian security service

Alen Basil in 2012. Photo: Facebook

When BIRN called Basil to ask about the claims that he is involved in the people-smuggling business, he denied the accusations.

"I am a court translator, I work with the court and of course I am mentioned [n that context], because I am there with the prosecutor and with the court," he said.

A retired Serbian State Security Service officer told the retrial of Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic at the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague on Wednesday that he met the defendants in November 1994 on Petrova Gora mountain in Croatia, which at that time was part of the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina established by rebel Croatian Serbs.

A defence witness at former Serbian Security Service officials Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic's retrial said he knew Serbian paramilitary units were operating in Croatia in 1991 but didn't know about crimes they committed.

Belgrade Higher Court acquitted seven members of the Serbian security service’s now-disbanded Special Operations Unit of involvement in a rebellion against the government of Zoran Djindjic in 2001.

Defence lawyers for former Serbian security service officials Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic told the Hague court that notorious paramilitary leader Arkan’s fighters operated as part of the Bosnian Serb police in 1995.

A witness told the Hague retrial of former Serbian security service chiefs Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic how he survived a shooting by paramilitaries led by Serbian warlord Arkan in Bosnia in 1995.

An ex-member of the Red Berets unit told the retrial of former Serbian security service chiefs Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic that the unit persecuted and murdered Bosniaks in the Doboj area in 1992.

An ex-member of the Red Berets unit testified that former Serbian security service official Franko Simatovic, who is on trial in The Hague, was its commander-in-chief in 1995 when it allegedly committed crimes.

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.

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.