The Ministry of Croatian War Veterans on Friday condemned in the strongest terms the decision of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Courts on the early release of Serbian war criminal Franko Simatovic.

“It is shameful that we waited 20 long years from the arrest to the final verdict against the key person in the forming and arming of Serbian paramilitary units in Croatia and commander of Serbian paramilitary units. And just three months after he was sentenced to only 15 years, his early release once again belittles the victims of brutal crimes committed under his command,” the ministry said in a statement.

The MICT has granted an early release to former Serbian intelligence officer Franko Simatovic, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia in the 1990s, on account of poor health, the Belgrade-based media reported on Thursday. The MICT Appeals Chamber in May found former Serbian intelligence officers Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic guilty of participation in a joint criminal enterprise and crimes committed in six municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia during the 1992-95 war.

The ministry noted that after the verdict, Croatia expressed its dissatisfaction that Simatovic was not convicted of all the crimes committed on the territory of Croatia, and that  those were the most serious and cruel crimes of the Greater Serbian regime committed in Vukovar and Skabrnja.