The daily says it received the decisions from a court employee. Under the decisions, Gotovina was given a five-year prison term in 1986 for a robbery committed in 1981. He reportedly served this sentence. In 1993 he was sentenced to two years in jail for participation in unlawful arrest, kidnapping and extortion, and in late 1995 to 30 months in jail for extortion.
The newspaper says that Gotovina's personal file at the Croatian Defence Ministry never stated that he had ever been convicted anywhere. Jutarnji quoted sources at the Croatian Embassy in Paris as saying they are not familiar with the convictions and do not know if France has requested Gotovina's extradition. Sources at the embassy said France extended Gotovina's passport several years ago.
Jutarnji List goes on to say that the Croatian government was officially informed of Gotovina's criminal file on 14 February 2004 and that the chief prosecutor of the Hague tribunal had received the complete file from France.
The fugitive general's defence team issued a statement saying that Gotovina's actions prior to 1995 have nothing to do with the Hague tribunal's indictment against him.
The statement says there are a number of facts indicating that the Jutarnji List article is an insinuation and a forgery similar to previous ones which claimed that Gotovina was an IRA collaborator and an arms and drug trafficker.
The defence team say that Gotovina was given a completely new identity upon joining the French Foreign Legion in the early 1970s and that no official document was issued in the name of Ante Gotovina. They add that Gotovina started using his real name only upon returning to Croatia and that it is, therefore, virtually impossible that there exist French convictions against him under the name Ante Gotovina.
The statement says that in 1992, when the "file" states that Ante Gotovina was being prosecuted, he became a senior Croatian Army officer, leading Operation Maslenica in January 1993. The statement says that was also a period when French officers were active in the UNPA zone in Croatia and regularly communicated with General Gotovina. It adds that French intelligence operates in Croatia and would have certainly checked the identity of a former Foreign Legion member.
The defence team goes on to say that no French court has ever issued a warrant for Gotovina's arrest and that the French government has never, officially or unofficially, asked that he be extradited to serve the alleged prison sentences or appear before a French court.
The statement says it is inconceivable that France would secretly prosecute a Croatian Army general or never issue an arrest warrant, boycott negotiations with him or notify international media about a person allegedly twice convicted or prosecuted in France.
The defence team says that France gave Gotovina a passport without any problems in 1995, when he became the Croatian Army's chief inspector, and renewed it in 2001 at his request. It adds that it would not have been possible to issue the passport if there had existed three convictions because under French law Gotovina would have been a fugitive since 1992.