Spokesman and vice president Miroslav Rozac said the court turned down the appeal from Glavas's attorney Drazen Matijevic because the charges, autopsy minutes, testimonies of three defendants and one protected witness, and official notes of information provided by future witnesses provided grounds to suspect that Glavas had committed the crime he was charged with.
The court's investigating judge will question 96 witnesses and establish all relevant facts so that after the investigation the State Prosecutor's Office can decide whether to indict Glavas or ask that proceedings be discontinued, Rozac told the press.
He said the court accepted the motion of the Osijek County Prosecutor's Office for a joinder of the case against Glavas and previously launched proceedings against others accused in the Sellotape case because the facts were interrelated, the witnesses were the same and both cases referred to the same crime.
Asked about the possibility of joining this case with another one against Glavas at the Zagreb County Court, Rozac said this had not been discussed. He explained that the investigation would be carried out in Osijek and then the investigating judge would take a position.
Asked if the investigation had been declared confidential, Rozac said the investigation was a secret procedure, but that the investigating judge could subsequently order the defence, defendants and witnesses not to go public with certain facts.
Asked about the request to place Glavas in custody in connection with the Sellotape case, Rozac said a decision had not been made yet, but that the public would be duly notified when it was made.
Glavas, member of Parliament stripped of immunity after being charged with crimes against Osijek Serbs in 1991, is already in detention in Zagreb.