ZAGREB, April 28 (Hina) - Defence counsel for six Bosnian Croat indictees who turned themselves in to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague earlier this month announced on Wednesday they would file requests for the provisional
release of their clients pending trial.
ZAGREB, April 28 (Hina) - Defence counsel for six Bosnian Croat
indictees who turned themselves in to the UN war crimes tribunal in
The Hague earlier this month announced on Wednesday they would file
requests for the provisional release of their clients pending trial.#L#
"In the next few days we will file a request for provisional release.
Now we have the necessary guarantees from the Republic of Croatia and
the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina for their release from prison,"
Zeljko Olujic, defence attorney for former Bosnian Croat defence
minister Bruno Stojic, told Hina in a telephone interview.
The government of the Bosnian Muslim-Croat federation decided on April
19 to provide guarantees for the pre-trial release of five Bosnian
Croats having dual Bosnian and Croatian citizenship -- Jadranko Prlic,
Slobodan Praljak, Valentin Coric, Bruno Stojic and Berislav Pusic.
Olujic noted that the defendants had not yet received the guarantees
from the Bosnian Federation in writing.
The sixth defendant, former Croatian Defence Council (HVO) commander
General Milivoj Petkovic, who has only Croatian citizenship, has
decided to wait until they can all file a request together, his
lawyer, Vesna Alaburic, said.
Asked if they expected a positive decision from the Trial Chamber in
the light of an announcement by the Prosecution that it would insist
on interviewing the accused while they were in custody because some of
them have not yet talked to tribunal investigators, the defence
lawyers said they were "optimistic" and that they were against
interviews with prosecutors.
"We are in any case optimistic. Precedents have been created. Biljana
Plavsic, Rahim Ademi and many others have been released. The release
of generals Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac is being awaited," Olujic
said, adding that judges were in favour of such requests being granted
because it usually takes a year or two for a trial to start.
Olujic and Alaburic confirmed that defence counsel for the six were
opposed to interviews requested by the Prosecution.
"Any interview in which the indictment would be discussed is out of
the question," Olujic said. "We are united in that view. We have the
same instructions for our clients. Nothing doing until further
notice," Alaburic added.
The six accused are charged with crimes against humanity and war
crimes committed from 1992 to 1993 as part of an organised expulsion
of non-Croats from the now defunct self-styled Croat Republic of
Herceg Bosna during the Croat-Muslim war.
(Hina) vm