ZAGREB, March 16 (Hina) - The defence teams representing former Yugoslav People's Army commanders Mile Mrksic and Veselin Sljivancanin, who are charged with the massacre of 260 Croatian prisoners of war on the Ovcara farm outside
Vukovar in late 1991, presented their closing arguments before the Hague war crimes tribunal on Thursday and Friday, accusing each other for responsibility for the prisoners and their fate.
ZAGREB, March 16 (Hina) - The defence teams representing former
Yugoslav People's Army commanders Mile Mrksic and Veselin Sljivancanin, who are
charged with the massacre of 260 Croatian prisoners of war on the Ovcara farm
outside Vukovar in late 1991, presented their closing arguments before the
Hague war crimes tribunal on Thursday and Friday, accusing each other for
responsibility for the prisoners and their fate. The defence teams
of Mrksic and Sljivancanin as well as counsel for the third accused, Miroslav
Radic, recommended that their clients be acquitted, claiming that the
prosecution failed to prove their responsibility.
The defence teams insisted that their clients had nothing to do with
the evacuation of Croatian prisoners from the Vukovar town hospital, their
separation and transfer to a JNA barracks and then to the Ovcara farm where
they were executed during the night between November 20 and 21, 1991.
The prosecutors recommended life imprisonment for the accused if they
are found guilty of the massacre, and sentences ranging between four and 15
years if found guilty of lesser crimes, such as failure to punish the
perpetrators.