UN tribunal acquits Serbian officials
I’ve noted before the significant number of recent acquittals at international criminal tribunals. Add two more to the list, courtesy of the international tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Voice of America reports: A United Nations war crimes court has acquitted two key allies of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. The men were accused of involvement ...
I've noted before the significant number of recent acquittals at international criminal tribunals. Add two more to the list, courtesy of the international tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Voice of America reports:
I’ve noted before the significant number of recent acquittals at international criminal tribunals. Add two more to the list, courtesy of the international tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Voice of America reports:
A United Nations war crimes court has acquitted two key allies of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. The men were accused of involvement in murder and other crimes committed by soldiers during the1990s Balkan wars.
Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic hugged their lawyers after being found not guilty by the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Stanisic is the former chief of Serbia’s secret police in the 1990s, and was once considered the country’s second most powerful figure after former president Slobodan Milosevic. Simatovic was his deputy.
The prosecution claimed the two men masterminded covert operations that led to ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Croatia during the 1990s Balkan wars, following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
A summary of the ruling is available here. The reaction from the region has been predictable, with Serbian officials lauding the decision and Bosnians decrying it.
David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist
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