ZAGREB ZAGREB, April 20 (Hina) - The civil lawsuit which the two survived members of the Zec family initiated against the Republic of Croatia, suing it for the death of the other three family members in 1991, began on Tuesday before
the Zagreb Municipal Court. Brother Dusan and sister Gordana demand 1.5 million kuna in damages for the death of their father Mihajlo, mother Marija, and 12-year-old sister Aleksandra.
ZAGREB, April 20 (Hina) - The civil lawsuit which the two survived
members of the Zec family initiated against the Republic of Croatia,
suing it for the death of the other three family members in 1991,
began on Tuesday before the Zagreb Municipal Court. Brother Dusan and
sister Gordana demand 1.5 million kuna in damages for the death of
their father Mihajlo, mother Marija, and 12-year-old sister
Aleksandra.#L#
The plaintiffs, Gordana and Dusan Zec and their grandmother Bosa, who
have been living in Banja Luka in Bosnia-Herzegovina since 1991, did
not appear today at the first hearing and will be interviewed at the
next hearing, scheduled for 22 October.
The municipal court accepted a request by their lawyers to ask the
Zagreb County Court to make it possible for the parties concerned to
get an insight into a file on the acquittal of five members of the
Croatian reserve police units, who had been charged with the murder of
Mihajlo, Marija and Aleksandra Zec in 1991. The municipal court will
also look at the records on the investigation into the murder, during
which the five reservists admitted having perpetrated the crime. As
they confessed to the murder without the presence of their lawyers,
the document was not considered valid during the previous penal
action.
The municipal court believes that there be can no invalid evidence in
a civil lawsuit.
After the first hearing, one of the legal representatives for Gordana
and Dusan Zec, lawyer Maro Miholcevic, said that the state had never
shown regret at what had happened when the three members of the Zec
family were murdered, and that it was indicative that on the day when
Croatia was looking forward to a positive opinion of the European
Commission on its European Union membership application, it had to
face some things from its past.
Last week, the Office of the State Prosecutor turned down a proposal
for an out-of-court settlement with two survived members of the Zec
family who asked the Republic of Croatia to pay 2.16 million kuna in
damages for the death of their father, mother and sister, who were
murdered in Zagreb in 1991,
"All prerequisites for a settlement have not been met for now, because
in the case of the murder of the three members of the Zec family there
are some disputed facts which should be clarified and established by
the court," Deputy State Prosecutor Jadranko Jug told Hina last
Friday.
This primarily refers to the motive of the killing and whether police
reservists suspected of killing Mihajlo, Marija and Aleksandra Zec
committed the crime while on duty.
The suspects admitted to having perpetrated the crime during a
preliminary investigation without the presence of their lawyers, but
owing to this procedural omission they were never put on trial.
Lawyer Ante Nobilo, who is another legal representative for Gordana
and Dusan Zec, proposed an out-of-court settlement to the state.
Nobilo believes that there are no contentious issues which should be
settled by the court.
"It is beyond dispute that the members of the Zec family were killed
by weapons that belonged to the reserve units of the Interior Ministry
and that the mother and daughter were transported in a police car to
the Adolfovac mountaineers' lodge on Mount Medvednica (overlooking
Zagreb) in the vicinity of which their bodies were found," Nobilo said
last Friday.
(Hina) ms