Two days of oral arguments concluded on January 25 in the appeals by two former Serbian intelligence officers against their convictions two years ago for murder, crimes against humanity, and other offenses in western Bosnia during the 1992-95 war.
Jovan Stanisic and Franko Simatovic were each sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2021 in a retrial that followed acquittals in 2013.
They were convicted of crimes that included murder, deportation, forcible transfer, and persecution in what prosecutors called brutal "ethnic cleansing" at Bosanski Samac in 1992.
Prosecutors are seeking longer sentences for both men.
They have asked that Stanisic and Simatovic be convicted of crimes of which they were previously acquitted in addition to additional actions in Croatia.
They also say both men oversaw the establishment of training centers throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia that the brutal crimes of Bosanski Samac reflected a pattern used form months at other locations.
Stanisic was head of the Serbian Interior Ministry's State Security Service in 1992-98.
Simatovic commanded an elite special forces unit within the Yugoslav State Security Service in 1991-98.
Their current appeal is being heard by the Appeals Chamber of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (UNIRMCT), which announced the conclusion of the arguments on January 25.
Their prosecutions were some of the last before the UNIRMCT -- the successor to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) -- to assert the responsibility of the regime of the late Yugoslav and Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.
A verdict is not expected until June.
Stanisic's defense lawyers argue that he became "a key peacemaker" who contributed to ending conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.
Stanisic and Simatovic were detained in 2003 and their initial trial lasted from June 2009 until January 2013.
Their case represents the last of the so-called core cases before the ICTY or its successor institution.