UN court to pass judgement in retrial of Milosevic aides

Prosecutors have asked a UN war crimes court to hand life sentences to former Serbian spy chiefs Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic.

Two former Serbian spy chiefs and aides of Slobodan Milosevic face United Nations court verdicts after a years-long retrial on charges of running death squads in the 1990s Balkans wars. Jovica Stanisic, 70, the former head of Serbia’s state security service, and his deputy Franko Simatovic, 71, are accused of backing paramilitary groups in Bosnia and Croatia. They included an elite unit dubbed the “Red Berets” and the feared paramilitary outfit run by Zeljko “Arkan” Raznatovic, called “Arkan’s Tigers”, which together allegedly killed hundreds of people.