The UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) on Wednesday expanded the convictions and increased the sentences of two individuals who helped to murder and deport non-Serbs during the Balkan wars. The two, Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović, are former Serbian security officials.

The IRMCT’s Appeals Chamber dismissed the men’s appeals of their convictions for various war crimes, including aiding and abetting murder and forced deportation, against Croats and Bosnian Muslims. Instead, the chamber granted the prosecution’s appeal and found that the men carried out their crimes as part of a “joint criminal enterprise.” The court also increased the men’s prison sentences from 12 years to 15 years. The decision came after the two were found guilty in a retrial after their initial acquittal in 2013.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk welcomed the final verdict, describing it as a milestone since it was the last appeal judgment related to core crime cases before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). He said:

The meticulous work of both tribunals and their fact-based decisions, established beyond reasonable doubt, cannot be denied. Verdicts like today’s remind us of an awful past to which we must never return. I urge the authorities, media outlets and people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia and Kosovo to step up efforts to advance truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence. Revisionist narratives, genocide denial, divisive rhetoric and hate speech, from any quarter, are unacceptable. Any actions that exacerbate tensions between and among communities must be condemned – immediately.

The mandate of ICTY commenced in 1993 and closed in 2017, following which the IRMCT took over the proceedings. The tribunal dealt with numerous cases resulting from war crimes that took place during the conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s.