UN court chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz expressed content with the final verdict in the case against former Serbian security officials Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic before the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), stressing that this was another confirmation that what was happening in Bosnia and Herzegovina was not a civil or internal war but international conflict.

Brammertz stressed he was particularly happy with the fact that the final verdict said Stanisic and Simatovic were a part of a joint criminal enterprise, which was one of the main reasons behind the appeal to the first-instance verdict from 2021.

He recalled that, according to the 2008 lawsuit, the joint criminal enterprise involves the then President of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic, and that the goal of the joint criminal enterprise was removal of the Bosniaks and Croats from parts of the territory of BiH and Croatia, for the formation of ethnically clean Serb state.

Serbian ex officials get 15 years in prison for war crimes in Bosnia, Croatia

As for the fact that the verdict was extended from 12 in the first-instance trial to 15 years in prison for each defendant, Brammertz said that this is a reflection of the weight of the crimes that the office of the prosecutor presented.

The prosecutor also emphasised that this was the last verdict before the Hague tribunal related to the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that this verdict proved that what happened in BiH was not a civil war or internal conflict.

This verdict showed that it was an international conflict, which involved political leaderships of neighbouring countries, in this case – Belgrade, said Brammertz.

He stressed that this was individual criminal liability of the military and political leadership, specifically in this case of the intelligence services.

Speaking to reporters in the Hague, Brammertz also said that the thoughts of the prosecution during the reading of the final verdict were with the victims and their families.

This was the last process in the Hague, but hundreds of cases are there for national courts to deal with, and we will continue to provide any help necessary in the coming years, he added.