"It's true that the trial of Mile Budak was not conducted according to the standards we have at present, but nothing can be done about it," Mesic said on Tuesday during a visit to a food factory in Klis, just northeast of the coastal city of Split.
"It is unthinkable that such a trial might be held in Croatia today, to find a person guilty one day and to execute them the next. No one in their right mind can deny such legal omissions, which were common at that time. But nothing can be done about it. No retrial could refute the most important fact that Mile Budak was a member of a government whose laws resulted in the creation of Nova Gradiska, Jasenovac and numerous other camps where innocent people were killed," the president said.
On Monday, about 120 Croatian intellectuals, including university teachers, scientists, members of the Academy of Arts and Sciences and cultural and public figures, issued an appeal urging the government to renew politically-motivated trials held during Communist rule and other totalitarian regimes in Croatia, including the trial of Mile Budak. The signatories said that their appeal was prompted by "the latest media campaign against Mile Budak".
Mesic also commented on responses in Slovenia to his statements on Monday that Croatian authorities must respond in the Joras case because it was intolerable that someone should block roads and declare a piece of land the territory of another state and that the land border between Slovenia and Croatia was defined.
Responding to the statement by Slovene Foreign Minister Ivo Vajgl that "presidents can make such statements only when they are on vacation," Mesic said that he carried out his presidential duties also when he was on vacation, adding that his statement, which he made on the southern island of Bol, was "based on facts which the Slovene minister may or may not like."
"I just repeated the conclusions of the Badinter Commission, which cannot be refuted or changed. As for the sea border, it's an open issue and we must settle it," Mesic said.