Former Serbian secret policemen face war crimes retrial in The Hague

Source: Reuters

Tue Dec 15, 2015 10:57am EST

Judges at a United Nations court on Tuesday ordered the retrial of two Serbian secret police officials who were acquitted two years ago of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Balkan wars of the early 1990s.

Appeals judges found that Jovica Stanisic, former head of Serbia's State Security Service (DB), and Franko Simatovic, an officer in the DB, had been mistakenly acquitted by trial judges who had misapplied the law.

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They were charged with directing some of the most notorious militias of the wars that followed the collapse of multi-ethnic Yugoslavia, including groups named the Scorpions and the Tigers. Their indictment listed hundreds of execution-style murders.

Appeals judges said the original acquittal had been erroneous, for instance because it had sought evidence - unnecessarily - that orders issued by Stanisic and Simatovic had been "specifically directed" at aiding the commission of crimes.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-warcrimes-serbia-idUSKBN0TY1XE20151215?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews