The panel of judges presiding over the case said a verdict would be announced on Wednesday, March 28.
As the indictment was amended in the meantime, the panel of judges postponed until today a hearing scheduled for March 6 to give Hrastov's defence team time to prepare. The indictment was amended to drop the charge that Hrastov shot at prisoners from a pistol after they were hit by a machine-gun burst, but another prisoner that was wounded was added to the indictment.
Hrastov said that he was not a war criminal, that he did not violate international laws and customs of war and did not kill anyone.
Judge Marijan Janjac, who chairs the panel of judges in the case, read Hrastov's defence statements from 1992, 2000 and 2001, when he said that he "shot at Chetniks after hearing the words 'run' and 'get the Ustashas' because he had to protect himself, his fellow soldiers and the town of Karlovac".
Karlovac County Prosecutor Ljubica Fiskus Sumonja said that statements by witnesses in the trial were contradictory, but that they matched in the crucial segments and that the panel of judges should pay special attention to material evidence, findings of the on-the-spot investigation, and photographs from the crime scene.
The prosecutor said that during the presentation of evidence it had been established that the "attack of prisoners on the defendant was neither a formation nor semi-circular attack, there was no need for self-defence and shooting at disarmed prisoners was contrary to international law and conventions".
She added that it had been proven that "the JNA reservists had surrendered unconditionally and posed no threat to the defendant".
Lawyers representing Hrastov described in detail the war events in which by 21 September 1991 one hundred residents of Karlovac and another 229 people from the town area were killed, while the number of wounded and those who died as a result of wounding was around 500.
Hrastov was in a group of people who opposed the extermination of Croats by Chetnik forces, attorney Kresimir Vilajtovic said.
He added, among other things, that Hrastov had been diagnosed with temporary mental derangement and limited ability to control his actions.
Igor Meznaric, another defence attorney, said that the JNA reservists were mercenaries and therefore could not be protected by international conventions.