The prosecution postponed its proposal on the length of the sentence until Thursday, when defence counsel are expected to make their closing statement.
Calling the war-torn Vukovar "the Croatian Stalingrad", which the JNA planned to raze to the ground, prosecutor Marks Moore said that the Vukovar Three, joined in a criminal enterprise, had full control over members of the Territorial Defence of Vukovar and units led by Serb Radical Vojislav Seselj, which killed Croat POWs abducted from the Vukovar Hospital at Ovcara.
The indictment charges the Vukovar Three with ordering and organising, after the fall of Vukovar in November 1991, the evacuation of some 300 persons from the Vukovar Hospital. They were taken to a JNA barracks and later to the Ovcara farm outside the town, where 260 prisoners were executed by local Serb forces and extremist units formed by the Serbian Radicals.
Sljivancanin had full control over the evacuation of the Vukovar Hospital on 20 November 1991, he made independent decisions and was considered to be in charge of the town after its fall, the prosecution said.
It was clear who issued all orders and whose orders were obeyed, the prosecution said, stressing that Sljivancanin had personally and intentionally prevented representatives of the European Community Monitoring Mission and the International Committee of the Red Cross, as well as reporters, from entering the hospital.
Sljivancanin had attended a meeting at the home of paramilitary commander Stanko Vujanovic at which Serb Radical leader Vojislav Seselj said that "no Ustasha shall leave Vukovar alive".
Sljivancanin played a central role in making a list of Croatian soldiers of whom some were later imprisoned and killed.
As commander of the Operative Zone South and Guard Motorised Brigade, Sljivancanin had both de iure and de facto control over all subordinated forces, including the military police, whom he could have ordered to investigate the crime, the prosecution said.
The order to evacuate the hospital was given by Mrksic, who entrusted Sljivancanin with that task, the prosecutors said.
Mrksic was informed about the torture of prisoners by members of the Territorial Defence of Vukovar.
Radic took part with Sljivancanin in the evacuation and separation of prisoners from the hospital and commanded members of the Territorial Defence and Seselj's forces which committed the massacre at Ovcara, the prosecution said.
Responding to claims from defence counsel that Croatian soldiers in the hospital changed their clothes to look like patients or medical staff, the prosecution allowed this as a possibility, saying that they did so because they were aware of what would happen to them.