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Glavas appears before investigating judge

ZAGREB, June 1 (Hina) - Branimir Glavas, founder of the association the Croatian Democratic Assembly of Slavonija and Baranja (HDSSB), appeared before a Zagreb County Court investigating judge on Thursday on suspicion of committing war crimes against civilians in the eastern city of Osijek in the early 1990s.
ZAGREB, June 1 (Hina) - Branimir Glavas, founder of the association the Croatian Democratic Assembly of Slavonija and Baranja (HDSSB), appeared before a Zagreb County Court investigating judge on Thursday on suspicion of committing war crimes against civilians in the eastern city of Osijek in the early 1990s.

Speaking to reporters after a six-hour hearing, Glavas said he had not completed his statement and that the hearing was set to resume next Monday.

He reiterated that his contribution to the creation of the Croatian state was honourable and that he was not afraid of the outcome of the court proceedings.

"I have nothing to be ashamed of nor am I afraid of the outcome of this trial. If someone participated in crimes, he should answer for that," Glavas said.

Glavas, who had been stripped of his immunity as a member of the national parliament because of this case, rejected the charge that at the start of the war he had had his own paramilitary unit.

"Paramilitary forces did exist in 1990, but they were not mine but of the entire Croatian people who realised that the Croatian state had to be defended with all possible means," he said.

Commenting on charges based on command responsibility, Glavas said that they could only apply to what had happened after December 1991 when he was appointed commander of the defence of Osijek after serving as municipal secretary of defence.

On Friday, investigating judge Zdenko Posavec is due to hear Krunoslav Fehir, a former member of the First Osijek Battalion, which was under Glavas's command in 1991.

Fehir had previously admitted having shot a prisoner and had testified about Glavas's alleged involvement in the murders of Serb civilians.

Glavas is suspected of being responsible for the maltreatment of three Serb civilians and the murder of two, one of whom disappeared without trace. Fehir is held responsible for torturing and shooting a civilian prisoner.

Glavas and Fehir are charged with war crimes against civilians under the criminal code that was in force until 1998. If found guilty, they face a prison sentence of between five and 20 years.

Parliament Speaker Vladimir Seks, who is currently on a visit to Finland, was asked by reporters in Helsinki earlier on Thursday to comment on Glavas's claim that the criminal case against him was politically motivated.

Seks rejected the accusation that the parliament or the government had initiated criminal proceedings against Glavas and that they used Chief Public Prosecutor Mladen Bajic as a tool to that end.

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