"We have collected information on General Gotovina's property and we still have to check some bank accounts and companies believed to be financing the fugitive," Chief State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic told Hina.
Bajic added that his office and the tax authorities had so far probed several companies from Zagreb and Zadar which are believed to be financing Gotovina, but he would not say if they had discovered anything.
The Prosecutor's Office is trying to discover possible sources of Gotovina's funding because it is obvious that he is not being financed from his real estate or his military pension allowance which is now received by his wife, Bajic said.
"After we collect all information, we will consider the possibility of suggesting that the government block Gotovina's assets," Bajic said. He explained that such a request could be made under the act on international restrictive measures that was adopted by the parliament last December.
Ivo Farcic, one of the attorneys from Gotovina's defence team, said he had no information on the possible request for freezing Gotovina's assets and that it was too soon to say how the defence team would respond to that measure.
By blocking Gotovina's assets Croatia would support restrictive measures introduced by the European Union Council last December. The Council then adopted a joint position and a regulation freezing assets belonging to Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic and Ante Gotovina, who are wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. It was stated at the time that the decision was accepted by EU candidate-countries, including Croatia, potential candidates and members of the European Free Trade Agreement.
The decision blocked all assets and economic resources belonging to the three indictees, except for assets necessary for their basic needs, food, accommodation, medicines and medical services, tax obligations, insurance premiums and costs of legal service.