ZAGREB, March 25 (Hina) - A five-member council of the Croatian Supreme Court on Thursday considered an appeal of the Split Office of the Croatian State Prosecutor against the decision of the Split County Court to acquit eight former
military policemen accused of committing war crimes against civilians in the Lora military prison in 1992. The council will subsequently make a decision on the appeal.
ZAGREB, March 25 (Hina) - A five-member council of the Croatian Supreme
Court on Thursday considered an appeal of the Split Office of the
Croatian State Prosecutor against the decision of the Split County
Court to acquit eight former military policemen accused of committing
war crimes against civilians in the Lora military prison in 1992. The
council will subsequently make a decision on the appeal.#L#
During a long debate on Thursday, a Supreme Court judge, Katica Jelic,
in detail reiterated the statements which defendants and some
witnesses gave before the County Court on events in the Lora prison in
which, the indictment alleges, the military policemen killed two and
harassed several Serb civilians.
Jelic said that the main objections of the prosecution referred to the
failure of the Split Count Court's panel of judges to interview
witnesses who were living in Serbia-Montenegro during the trial and to
accept written statements of another 16 witnesses from
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The prosecutors pointed the finger at the panel of judges chaired by
Judge Slavko Lozina for making it impossible for them to prove their
claims in the indictment. As a result, the prosecutors insist on a new
trial of the eight defendants before a different panel of judges.
The lawyers of the seven defendants believe that the appeal is
groundless, and they add that their clients could not be tried for war
crimes against civilians as such a definition of a crime is aimed at
protecting the civilians of the enemy (i.e. the other warring party)
while the victims in the Lora were Croatian citizens.
In late November 2002, the Split Count Court's panel of judges
acquitted Tomislav Duic, Andjelko Botic, Ante Gudic, Emilio Bungur,
Davor Banic, Tonci Vrkic, Josip Bikic and Miljenko Bajic, who had been
accused of harassing, killing and inhumanely treating civilians, most
of whom were Serbs, in the Lora prison, thus committing war crimes
against civilians. They had been also accused of detaining persons in
the prison without any valid reason, thus violating the Geneva
conventions.
The panel of judges said that it was beyond doubt that detainees in
the Lora prison had been harassed and that two men had been killed but
the panel believed that the prosecution failed to prove that the eight
indictees were guilty of the said crimes.
(Hina) ms