Serbia's War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukčević said on Thursday that his office will petition the Hague Tribunal for evidence in the Stanišić and Simatović case.

On Thursday the Hague Trial Chamber acquitted of all charges Jovica Stanišić, former Chief of the Serbian State Security Service, and Franko Simatović, and former commander of the Special Operations Unit of the Serbian State Security Service.

"Many of the crimes mentioned in these charges are the subject of preliminary investigations by the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor's Office. We are trying to discover the direct perpetrators and the masterminds, which is why we will ask the Hague Tribunal for evidence related to this case," Vukčević said in a press release.

The Trial Chamber found that Stanišić and Simatović cannot be held criminally responsible for the crimes of the direct perpetrators, as alleged by the prosecution, nor did they have the intent to further the common criminal purpose of the joint criminal enterprise, said Vukčević.

He said this was one of the longest trials before the Tribunal due to the complexity of the legal issues the court needed to resolve.

The Hague found it was not proven beyond reasonable doubt that Stanišić or Simatović were responsible for directing, organizing, equipping, training, arming and financing units of the Serbian State Security Service which murdered, persecuted, deported and forcibly transferred non-Serb civilians from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia between 1991 and 1995.