Spokesman Ratko Macek was commenting on a decision by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Trial Chamber in the "Prlic and Others" case to turn down Croatia's request to be granted "friend of the court" status in this case.
The Trial Chamber said it retained the right to interview, if necessary, the experts proposed by Croatia in line with Article 98 of the tribunal's rules on procedure and evidence, and that the parties in the proceedings too could call them as witnesses or experts.
Croatia requested in September to be granted amicus curiae status in the cases Gotovina, Cermak and Markac, and Prlic and Others, claiming that legal experts and historians would draw up motions whereby Croatia would dispute the Prosecution's unacceptable allegations in the three cases' indictments.
The indictments allege that the crimes in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were committed within a joint criminal enterprise in which the then Croatian state and military leadership took part.
Rejecting Croatia's request for amicus curiae status in the "Prlic and Others" case, the Trial Chamber accepted the Prosecution's arguments that Croatia would have a biased role and that the areas Croatia wanted to tackle were too broad in relation to the indictment and did not pertain to legal issues, which is within the jurisdiction of an amicus curiae.
The judges said in the decision it would not be in the interest of justice to grant amicus curiae status to a state whose former political and military leaders, according to the indictment, had engaged in a joint criminal enterprise.
The Trial Chamber said Croatia's request referred mainly to determination of facts and recalled that under the Hague tribunal's rules, presenting facts was within the jurisdiction of the parties in the proceedings and not an amicus curiae.
The Trial Chamber also said the majority of the facts Croatia wanted to tackle overstepped the frameworks of the indictment and that their consideration would be of no help to the Trial Chamber.