"They've got it now and will certainly take it into consideration," Hodzic told Hina by telephone from The Hague, explaining that the trial chamber dealing with the case had not received the report sent by the Croatian government within the required deadline due to a "technical error".
Last Friday the trial chamber suspended the decision granting provisional release to Croatian Army Generals Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac and ordered them to return to the UN detention unit in The Hague on February 8 so that they could attend a status conference the next day.
The status conference will focus on conflicts of interest of the defence teams in the case and will additionally discuss whether Cermak has complied with the provisional release rules.
The Zagreb weekly Globus reported earlier this month that Cermak had violated the provisional release rules three times. At the end of December 2006 Cermak attended a birthday party and a New Year's Eve party in Zagreb, while in January 2007 he attended a skiing race on Mount Sljeme overlooking Zagreb, which Globus documented with photographs.
In its decision suspending the provisional release, the trial chamber said that Croatia had failed to provide by the set deadline of January 23 the requested additional information on Cermak's compliance with the provisional release rules and on measures taken by the government to ensure such compliance.
The Croatian government promptly dismissed the allegations, stating that it had submitted the requested report to the ICTY's Zagreb office on the last day of the deadline.
Hodzic confirmed that the ICTY had found that the Croatian government's report had arrived on the last day of the deadline, adding that it had taken the ICTY Registry several days to file the report and pass it on to the trial chamber.
Generals Cermak and Markac are jointly charged with General Ante Gotovina with violations of international humanitarian law in the general area of Knin in central Croatia during and in the aftermath of the Croatian military operation "Storm" in the summer of 1995.
Cermak and Markac voluntarily surrendered to the ICTY in March 2004, shortly after the publication of the indictment against them. They have been on provisional release in Zagreb since early December 2004.