SCHEVENINGEN, April 2 (Hina) - Croatian Justice Minister Vesna Skare Ozbolt on Friday visited generals Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac as well as Tihomir Blaskic and Pasko Ljubicic at the UN war crimes tribunal's detention unit in the
Scheveningen district of The Hague.
SCHEVENINGEN, April 2 (Hina) - Croatian Justice Minister Vesna Skare
Ozbolt on Friday visited generals Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac as
well as Tihomir Blaskic and Pasko Ljubicic at the UN war crimes
tribunal's detention unit in the Scheveningen district of The Hague.#L#
"We have visited generals Markac and Cermak and talked to Tihomir
Blaskic and Pasko Ljubicic as well. They are feeling well and awaiting
court decisions, and I believe that everything will be all right," the
minister said after the visit.
Skare Ozbolt said that Markac and Cermak were optimistic about the
trial chamber's decision, following yesterday's discussion about their
request for provisional release.
The prosecution opposed the request for provisional release pending
trial, making its approval conditional on another interview with the
accused while they are in detention. Defence counsel for Cermak and
Markac rejected the request, challenging its legal grounds, and
presented the trial chamber with convincing arguments about their
clients meeting all criteria for provisional release.
At the session Minister Skare Ozbolt conveyed the government's firm
guarantees to obtain a positive decision from the trial chamber.
Tihomir Blaskic's condition is significantly better and he is in good
shape, the minister said.
"General Blaskic looks very good and seems to be in much better
condition than before," she said, adding that the general still had to
undergo some examinations.
After the visit to the Scheveningen detention centre, the minister
went to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to meet
ICJ president Gilbert Guillaume for talks on the status of proceedings
regarding Croatia's genocide lawsuit against the former Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia (today Serbia and Montenegro).
Later in the afternoon the minister will meet the president of the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY),
Theodor Meron, to discuss cooperation between Croatia and the ICTY,
the announced transfer of some cases to Croatian courts, and the
possibility for Croatia to have legal representation in proceedings
against Cermak and Markac as well as in proceedings regarding the
newly-arrived indictments against former Bosnian Croat military and
political leaders so that it could challenge politically unacceptable
parts of the indictments.
After the indictments against Cermak and Markac were issued, Croatian
Premier Ivo Sanader sent a letter to Meron announcing that the
Croatian government would cooperate in the proceedings to challenge
the counts of the indictments that state that former Croatian leaders
joined in a criminal enterprise to carry out ethnic cleansing.
(Hina) rml