ZAGREB, March 12 (Hina) - The retrial of Svetozar Karan, accused of war crimes against prisoners of war, will be held before the County Court in Karlovac instead of Gospic given that the latter court has not enough judges to compose a
new three-member panel for this case, according to a decision of Croatia's Supreme Court President Ivica Crnic.
ZAGREB, March 12 (Hina) - The retrial of Svetozar Karan, accused of war
crimes against prisoners of war, will be held before the County Court
in Karlovac instead of Gospic given that the latter court has not
enough judges to compose a new three-member panel for this case,
according to a decision of Croatia's Supreme Court President Ivica
Crnic.#L#
After quashing the ruling of the Gospic County Court which sentenced
Karan to 13 years in prison for war crimes against POWs, the Supreme
Court in January gave the case back to that court with an instruction
that a completely new panel of judges reconsider the case. As the
Gospic County Court has only five judges, it is not able to set up a
new three-member panel of judges for the Karan retrial.
According to a statement issued by the Supreme Court, Crnic decided to
entrust the Karlovac County Court with the task of conducting the
retrial before a three-member panel of judges, in compliance with the
law on the ratification of the statute of the International Criminal
Court.
After the defence appealed against the verdict, the Supreme Court
decided to quash the Gospic County Court's ruling saying it had
wrongly established facts and failed to accept statements which were
in favour of Karan.
Besides, the Supreme Court believes that the lower court failed to
prove that Karan was guilty of crimes with which he was charged,
namely that he inhumanely treated inmates in the police station in
Korenica in 1991 and 1995 and in a detention camp in the village of
Farkasici in 1995. The county court also made a mistake when it stated
that he was guilty on the basis of command responsibility as he had
been head of the guards.
The Supreme Court also believes that it was pointless to polemicise in
the verdict about the reason for Karan's return to Croatia after he
had been a refugee for some time. The Gospic court's verdict read that
he came back "in order to continue to live off Croatia ... and help
implement the memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences
(SANU)". The panel of judges in his first trial also criticised Karan
for "committing genocide, together with other members of the Serb
people, over Croats not only in the last war but also for more than
500 years."
That is why the Supreme Court assessed that this verdict indicated
that the Gospic County Court might have been biased in establishing
Karan's individual responsibility.
(Hina) ms