Special Operations Unit

Defence witness Nebojsa Bogunovic, who was a police official in the Serbian town of Backa Palanka, told the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague on Wednesday that he volunteered to go to the Eastern Slavonia region of Croatia in the summer of 1991 as the conflict there was developing.

A protected witness told the retrial of Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic at the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague on Wednesday that the Serbian State Security Service (SDB) was not involved in the so-called 'Log Revolution' that saw Serbs rebel against the Croatian authorities in 1990.

A defence witness in the war crimes retrial of former Serbian state security officials Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic said on Tuesday that the State Security Service, SDB, that they led was not involved in establishing a training camp in a Serb breakaway statelet in Croatia in 1991.

In a final ruling that was made public on Monday, Belgrade Appeals Court cleared Milorad 'Legija' Ulemek and six other former members of the Special Operations Unit, JSO of involvement in a rebellion in November 2001 against the Serbian government led by Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.

Lawyer Wayne Jordash told the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals as the trial resumed on Tuesday that the defence will call witnesses who will confirm that Jovica Stanisic, the former chief of the Serbian state security service, was not in command of Serbian paramilitary or police units in Bosnia or Croatia during the war, as the indictment claims.

After reading the verdict, the president of the Trial Chamber announced that the accused Radomir Markovic and Milan Radonjic were sentenced to 30 years in prison. Miroslav Kurak and Ratko Romic received 20 years each, Prva TV reported on Friday.

Former Serbian state security officers charged with the 1999 murder of opposition journalist Slavko Curuvija rejected evidence that allegedly places them at the scene of the crime.

Those found not guilty include former commander of the now disbanded JSO, Milorad "Legija" Ulemek - who was not in the courtroom today - and the unit's senior officer Zvezdan Jovanovic. Both men are currently serving 40 years in prison as the key conspirators in the 2003 assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.

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.

Former Serbian security chief Jovica Stanisic’s defence lawyer told the UN court that an ex-member of the Red Berets unit lied about the defendant commanding an operation in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995.