SERBIAN MEDIA FUELS DISINFORMATION
Prosecution Dismisses Stanisic and Simatovic Speculation
Prosecution spokesman Anton Nikiforov has spoken out against suggestions in the Serbian media that two former members of the Serbian State Security Service, DB, Franko Simatovic and Jovica Stanisic, have been acquitted of charges relating the Srebrenica massacre.
At a routine tribunal press conference on April 19, Nikiforov underlined that the source of the speculation, a decision issued a week earlier by the judges overseeing the case, in fact only concerned clarifications to the indictment against the two men.
The charge sheet against Simatovic and Stanisic includes several paragraphs detailing the murders of over 8,000 Bosniak prisoners from the town of Srebrenica in July 1995 and subsequent efforts to cover up the atrocity.
The judges wanted prosecutors to make it clear that as far as these crimes go, Simatovic and Stanisic are only charged on the basis of the murders of six particular prisoners from Srebrenica, whose executions were captured in a home video which was made public last year.
Those seen in the footage carrying out the murders were members of a paramilitary unit known as the Scorpions, which prosecutors say was subordinated to the DB at the time.
The judges emphasised that any links between this particular crime and a so-called joint criminal enterprise, including the massacre of thousands of other prisoners from Srebrenica, was "a matter for trial".
They also asked prosecutors to make it clear that Simatovic and Stanisic were not charged with deporting or forcibly transferring people from Srebrenica.
At a routine tribunal press conference on April 19, Nikiforov underlined that the source of the speculation, a decision issued a week earlier by the judges overseeing the case, in fact only concerned clarifications to the indictment against the two men.
The charge sheet against Simatovic and Stanisic includes several paragraphs detailing the murders of over 8,000 Bosniak prisoners from the town of Srebrenica in July 1995 and subsequent efforts to cover up the atrocity.
The judges wanted prosecutors to make it clear that as far as these crimes go, Simatovic and Stanisic are only charged on the basis of the murders of six particular prisoners from Srebrenica, whose executions were captured in a home video which was made public last year.
Those seen in the footage carrying out the murders were members of a paramilitary unit known as the Scorpions, which prosecutors say was subordinated to the DB at the time.
The judges emphasised that any links between this particular crime and a so-called joint criminal enterprise, including the massacre of thousands of other prisoners from Srebrenica, was "a matter for trial".
They also asked prosecutors to make it clear that Simatovic and Stanisic were not charged with deporting or forcibly transferring people from Srebrenica.
posted by Srebrenica Genocide at 3:59 PM
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