The Guardian reports that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia today sentenced Jovica Stanišić, former head of Serbia's state security service (DB), and his deputy Franko “Frenki” Simatović who ran DB’s special forces, to 12 years in prison for war crimes. The court found that they provided support to the Serbian paramilitary units that engaged in ethnic cleansing in the Bosnian town of Bosanski Šamac. According to The Guardian:
The ruling marks the first time senior Serbian officials from Slobodan Milošević’s regime in the 1990s have been found guilty for war crimes committed in Bosnia.
It has been the longest running international war crimes case in history. Stanišić and Simatović were first charged in 2003.
The men have already served 6 years in jail while trials and appeals were under way. This will be deducted from their sentence. They are expected to appeal.
