ZADAR COUNTY COURT ZADAR, Jan 26(Hina) - The trial of Milenko Radak, 39, from Bukovic near Benkovac, began before the County Court in the central Adriatic city of Zadar on Monday on suspicion that he had committed war crimes against
civilians in the villages of Skabrnja and Nadin in 1991.
ZADAR, Jan 26(Hina) - The trial of Milenko Radak, 39, from Bukovic near
Benkovac, began before the County Court in the central Adriatic city
of Zadar on Monday on suspicion that he had committed war crimes
against civilians in the villages of Skabrnja and Nadin in 1991.#L#
Radak was arrested in Benkovac in July last year after he came to the
local police station to collect his documents.
Radak, who held the rank of second lieutenant, commanded a special
purposes platoon of the self-styled Benkovac Territorial Defence that
attacked and occupied the village of Skabrnja on 18 November 1991.
Along with 20 identified and a number of unidentified members of Serb
paramilitary units, he took part in the expulsion of civilian
residents of the village, mainly women, children and the elderly who
had offered no resistance. Thirty-four persons were killed then,
according to the indictment.
Defence attorney Luka Susak said that his client had been arrested
because of his property in Bukovic "which is claimed by Croat settlers
from Slankamen, Vojvodina, who blackmailed his mother and told her
that her son would be arrested unless he gave them the land".
Susak insisted there was not a single piece of evidence to corroborate
that Radak had either ordered or committed a war crime.
The trial was postponed until further notice after Susak filed a
motion for the exclusion of state prosecutors, which is to be examined
by the Office of the State Prosecutor.
(Hina) vm sb