Special Operations Unit

UN Court’s Last Yugoslav Verdict Has Lessons for the Future

The aviator glasses were his signature, together with the red beret. Growing up in the 1990s in Serbia, for me the red beret represented a symbol - affiliation, both formal and informal, with Serbian state security special units, notorious fighters who took part in the wars in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Serbian Security Officials Contest Hague Court Convictions

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.

UN Court Hears Appeals in Serbian Officials’ War Crimes Trial

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.

Serbian Security Officials’ War Crime Verdict Set for 2023

Judge Carmel Agius, president of the UN's International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, told the court in The Hague on Thursday that the appeal verdict in the trial of former Serbian State Security Service officials Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic will be delivered "about this time next year".

Mutiny in Serbia: How a State Security Unit’s Rebellion Went Unpunished

"The commander ordered that the Communication Centre will no longer receive calls," said a note entered at 5.10pm on November 9, 2001 in the daily log of the Communication Centre in Kula, the headquarters of Serbia's State Security Special Operations Unit, the JSO.

Serbian Court to Ignore Petition for Release of Prime Minister’s Killer

Belgrade Higher Court told BIRN that Zvezdan Jovanovic, who shot dead Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic in 2003, is not eligible to ask for conditional release from prison until the end of 2029, despite a campaign calling for him to be freed immediately as a 'Serbian hero'.

Stanisic and Simatovic, Belgrade’s Security Strongmen

"Milosevic's men on the ground" was the most common description of these two leading Serbian state security officials - Jovica Stanisic, chief of the interior ministry's State Security Service and his right-hand man, Franko 'Frenki' Simatovic, commander of the service's Special Operations Unit.

Prosecution, Defence Lawyers Spar as Serbian Officials’ Retrial Concludes

The third and final day of closing arguments in the retrial of former Serbian State Security officials Jovica Stanisic and Franko 'Frenki' Simatovic at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague on Wednesday saw disputes between prosecution and defence over incidents from the 1990s.

Serbian Government was ‘Blind’ to Security Unit’s Deadly Threat

Looking back almost 20 years later, veteran journalist Milos Vasic told BIRN in an interview that the incident should have been recognised at the time as the "next step" in a chain of events that ultimately led to the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic on March 12, 2003.

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