Simatovic and Jovica Stanisic, former chief of the State Security Service, have been granted provisional release by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague and returned to Belgrade on Thursday.
Simatovic was arrested on March 13, 2003, a day after the murder of Prime Minister Djindjic, and was served with the indictment of the Hague tribunal on May 8, when the investigating judge issued an order that he be remanded in custody, Jovanovic said. The lawyer added that Simatovic's human rights were violated because he had spent the time between his arrest and the detention order in prison on the basis of a police decision.
Simatovic was founder and commander of a Serbian special police unit known as the Red Berets, which fought in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo during the 1990s wars. Members of this unit have been charged in many cases of organised crime as well as in the murder of Serbian President Ivan Stambolic, two attempts on the life of present Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic and the assassination of Djindjic. The first on the list of the accused in all the cases is the unit's former commander Milorad Lukovic Legija.