Šamac, Bosnia and Herzegovina

The UN's International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague announced on Tuesday that the verdict on Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic's appeal against their conviction for war crimes in Bosnia will be handed down on May 31.

Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic urged the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague on Tuesday to reverse the verdict sentencing them to 12 years in prison each and acquit them of aiding and abetting Serb fighting units that committed crimes in the Bosanski Samac area during the Bosnian war in 1992.

Franko Simatovic (right) and Jovica Stanisic in court in June 2017. Photo: EPA/Michael Kooren/Reuters pool.

The prosecution will then present its own appeal against the verdict on Wednesday, urging the UN court to convict the defendants of other wartime crimes of which they were initially acquitted and impose longer sentences.

He recalled how he and other prisoners were transported from the village of Crkvina near Bosanski Samac by Miljkovic after Serb forces had attacked the village.

Petar Djukic, a former high-ranking Serb police officer in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, told the retrial of Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic at the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague on Tuesday and Wednesday that military volunteers who came to Bosanski Samac in Bosnia in April 1992 were brought by political parties and not by Serbian State Security, SDB.

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.

Serbia sets aside money for flood-hit towns in RS

ŠAMAC -- Serbia earmarked EUR 1 million in aid for Šamac and Doboj that were hit by the severe floods in May, said Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić has announced.

He on Saturday toured the two towns in the Serb Republic (RS), the Serb entity of Bosnia-Herzegovina.