"The decision has staggered us as it is in contrast with the practice the tribunal has so far pursued," one of Markac's lawyers, Goran Mikulicic, told Hina on the phone on Tuesday evening.
Asked how his client reacted to the news, Mikulicic said that Markac had told him "that he was not actually surprised" as he looked at matters realistically if not pessimistically.
"The decision is totally unexpected," said Jadranka Slokovic, who together with lawyer Cedo Prodanovic, defends Gen. Cermak.
"Cermak is disappointed and it is not clear to him what is going with the regard to the situation in which prosecutors have not opposed the preliminary release," she added.
"We do not know what has happened, what has gone awry. There has been the consent of the prosecutors and all conditions, including the granting of interviews, the voluntary surrender, the government's guarantees, have been met," Slokovic said.
She also assessed that the decision departed from the practice and that criteria applied this time were different from criteria applied in similar cases.
In this case, neither legal reasons nor the practice to date have been of primary importance, but some other motives have played a more decisive role, the lawyers said adding that one can only speculate on other reasons.
Croatian Assistant Justice Minister Jaksa Muljacic, who in the charge of cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), has said he is "completely surprised at the tribunal's decision" as everything indicated that a positive opinion could be expected.
Explaining the decision to turn down the request for provisional release, the trial chamber presided by Judge Carmel Agius, cited that the motion for the provisional release had been repeated and it did not contain any new circumstances, Mikulicic said.
At the same time, the decision also reads that in the meantime the defendants gave interviews to the Prosecution, which informed that it was not opposed to their provisional release and that the ICTY President and Chief Prosecutor wrote in their reports to the UN Security Council that Croatia fully cooperated with the ICTY, Mikulicic said adding that no importance, obviously, was attached to these facts.
The decision cited similar reasons for the refusal as those reasons cited in the chamber's decision in April, the lawyers said adding that the problem of the runaway general Ante Gotovina was also mentioned.
Explaining its decision to turn down the request for provisional release from April, the trial chamber cited as the reason grave accusations against both indictees and the uncertainty as to whether they would show up for the trial and represent a threat to the victims and witnesses if granted provisional release.
At their initial appearance before the tribunal on March 12, Cermak and Markac pleaded not guilty on all seven counts of the indictment which charges them with crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war committed during and after the 1995 Operation Storm.
Cermak (55), a former commander of the Knin Military District, and Mladen Markac (49), a former commander of special police forces, were charged according to individual and command responsibility with the persecution and murder of at least 150 Serbs, plunder, wanton destruction, deportations and forcible resettlement, and other inhumane acts directed against the Serb population in the area from Korenica to the Zadar hinterland in the period between 4 August and 15 November 1995.