Ex-state security chiefs "planned crimes in Croatia, Bosnia"

Ex-state security chiefs "planned crimes in Croatia, Bosnia"

"In the appeal we made two key legal arguments against the acquittal in the first instance. The first argument was that the Trial Chamber had not trued on a number of evidence that we had presented and that showed there was a joint criminal plan to commit crimes in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and that Stanisic and Simatovic contributed to the implementation of this joint criminal plan," Brammertz said, according to daily Danas.

According to him, the second argument of the prosecution was that the Trial Chamber wrongly applied the concept of "concrete orientation" when making a decision on whether the accused aided and abetted the commission of the crime.

"The Appeals Chamber accepted our arguments and ordered a retrial in its entirety under the applicable rules," said Brammertz.

A spokesman for the Hague Tribunal, Nenad Golcevski, told the Belgrade-based newspaper that the retrial of the two former chiefs of Serbia's state security service will not affect the exit strategy of the court, adding that the new trial will start "in due course."

Stanisic and Simatovic are charged with crimes committed against non-Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1991 to 1995. In the spring of 2013, the Trial Chamber of the Hague Tribunal (ICTY) acquitted them on all five counts.