ZAGREB, Jan 8 (Hina) - Based on a court ruling, General Ante Gotovina's attorneys on Thursday took over 77 documents which the Croatian government had earlier forwarded to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
(ICTY).
ZAGREB, Jan 8 (Hina) - Based on a court ruling, General Ante Gotovina's
attorneys on Thursday took over 77 documents which the Croatian
government had earlier forwarded to the International Criminal
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). #L##L#
The assistant justice minister for cooperation with the Hague
tribunal, Jaksa Muljacic, handed the documents over to one of the
attorneys, Ante Vukorepa, at the government's office for cooperation
with the tribunal.
"We've received everything and we are grateful to the assistant
minister for solving the matter so quickly," Vukorepa said.
He said the attorneys would decide about the defence strategy after
studying the documents.
He was not able to say whether the fugitive general would appear
before the ICTY now that the documents had been handed over.
The Zagreb Municipal Court ordered the government last month to
deliver to Gotovina's lawyers 77 documents submitted to the Hague
tribunal in September 1995 and some last February. Last week the
government passed a decision to hand over the documents, following
consultations with the tribunal's office of the prosecutor, which
previously objected due to Gotovina's unavailability to the
authorities.
The spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office, Florence Hartmann, said
Wednesday that chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte had decided to make an
exception and approve the hand-over of documents Gotovina's lawyers
have been asking for more than two years. Hartmann said it was
established the nature of the documents was such that their early
publication would not harm the case
(Hina) it