The trial chamber approved the request filed by attorneys Cedo Prodanovic and Jadranka Slokovic given that it referred to the right to choose defence council which could significantly affect the justness and expediency of proceedings.
Earlier this month, judges Bakone Justice Moloto and Christine van den Wyngaert were for the exclusion of the two attorneys due to conflict of interest, while judge Alphons Orie was against.
The trial chamber concluded that if the two attorneys stayed, Cermak would be deprived of the possibility to build his defence on the shifting of responsibility to his two superiors, General Ante Gotovina and his deputy Rahim Ademi, owing to Prodanovic and Slokovic's loyalty to Ademi in another case in which they represent him in Croatia.
Orie maintained that Prodanovic and Slokovic could represent Cermak before the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague provided they gave up on representing him in the Croatian case and hired a third attorney.
The trial of the three generals accused of war crimes committed in 1995, initially scheduled to start on May 7, has been postponed until further notice.