9 minutes agoI'm sorry.
Periskopi(9 years ago)
(9 years ago)Former Serbian head of state security Jovica Stanisic said at the UN tribunal that the claim of a witness that the head of security was Arkan's chief during the war was not true. Jovica Stanisic's defence lawyer said on Wednesday in the Mechanism for the International Court in The Hague that the prosecution witness [...] prosecution's prosecution prosecution charge.
Jovica Stanisic's defence lawyer said on Wednesday in The Hague's Mechanism for International Courts that the prosecution witness's indictment of Borivoje Savic that Zeljko Raznatovic, otherwise known as Arkan, told him in May 1991 that Stanishiqi was his chief, was not real.
During the witness questioning, Stanisic's lawyer, Wayne Jordashi, said Saviq could not have spoken to Raznatovic in Belgrade in mid-May 1991, because the paramilitary leader was in jail in Zagreb at the time.
Jordashi presented the witness with a document issued by the court in Zagreb, showing Raznatovic had been held in prison until 14 June 1991.
Savic responded by saying that it was possible for their conversation to take place a month later.
“There is an opportunity to have happened at another time, but my testimony is true”, the witness said.
Savic testified at the Stanishic trial and his former deputy, Franco Simatovic, otherwise known as Frankie.
They are accused of persecution, murder, deportation and violent shift of Croat and Bosnian civilians during the wars in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1991 to 1995.
According to the charges, they were part of a joint criminal enterprise led by former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, aimed at driving Croats and Bosniaks away from large parts of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to achieve Serbian domination.
Defence lawyer Jordashi also tried to prove that Stanisic did not control Raznatovici by presenting a statement issued by former Serbian Defence Minister Tomislav Simovic, who said Raznatovic's unit was “part of territorial protection” and that “co-ordinated its activities with the Yugoslav People's Army”.
Witness Savic said that this was not correct.
He was washing hands of responsibility. It was a fabricated interview,” said Saviq.
Stanisic and Simatovic both claimed they were innocent in December last year after the appeal to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia overturned the earlier verdict on their acquittal on the charges.
The Court of Appeals ruled on December 15th that there were serious legal and actual errors when Stanisic and Simatovic were first acquitted of war crimes charges in 2013.
It ordered that the case be retriald and all evidence and witnesses be heard completely by new judges.
The trial continues Tuesday. / B IRN Belgrade
