Josip Fehir told a press conference in Osijek that his son had apparently been taken in a red car to the Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor in Zagreb at about 1930 hours last Thursday. He said he had learned this from his acquaintances.
"I have been told that my son is mentioned as one of the chief witnesses of the alleged killings of civilians during the war in 1991," Fehir said, without specifying the source of the information.
He said that his son, Krunoslav, was 15 and a half years old at the time and that he occasionally visited the Crisis Management Centre in Osijek to bring food and drinks.
"On the night the person mentioned in the media as the victim of war crimes was killed, my son was in the Crisis Management Centre, but he in no way participated in that event nor was he present when it happened," Fehir said.
Lawyer Marko Dumancic said Fehir had approached him for help because he was worried about his son.
Dumancic would not take any questions from the press, saying that Krunoslav Fehir might be the subject of a criminal investigation.
Pressed by reporters to answer if Krunoslav Fehir was a member of a military unit in 1991, Josip Fehir said that "Krunoslav was listed as a member of the Croatian Army, but he did not take part in any action."
The Osijek Police Department later told Hina that it had received no notification of the disappearance of Krunoslav Fehir and that officers from that department had taken no action in connection with him.
The killings were again brought to public attention by the Split-based Feral Tribune weekly, which said in its latest issue that the Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor had received a statement from an alleged witness of the arrests, torture and murders of dozens of Serb civilians in Osijek in the second half of 1991 and in 1992. The newspaper did not give the identity of the witness.
The Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor has confirmed receiving testimonies about the Osijek killings.
Feral Tribune journalist Drago Hedl, who wrote the article in question, told Novi List on Sunday that the witness could not be reached since last Friday, adding that he believed that the witness had been removed from the media spotlight by the Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor.