Journalist Gordan Malic's allegations do not exist in the report by the Croatian government, the defence team said referring to claims that the report which the Croatian Justice Ministry complied on its efforts to find the requested documents reads that a part of the artillery logs relevant to the indictment was taken by Gotovina and a part was burnt.
The defence team said that it possessed a copy of the report which the government forwarded to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and its prosecution.
According to the Zagreb-based daily, the ministry's secret report reads that some of the artillery logs were taken by Gotovina while he was the Croatian Armed Forces (HV) chief inspector and that during 2000 and 2001, Marin Ivanovic, a former intelligence agent and currently a member of Gotovina's defence team, and two former employees of the Croatian Defence Ministry, Jurica Sare and Marijan Kretic, helped him remove those documents.
Gotovina's defence lawyer Luka Misetic said that Malic's allegations were incorrect and that they misinformed the Croatian public.
The lawyer also called on Malic to "publish the alleged page of the report which says what the journalist has written or to promptly apologise to General Gotovina and others whom he slanders with no reason in his article".