"In my opinion, General Gotovina will not surrender. He has no intention of surrendering to The Hague," Luka Misetic said in an interview with the Split-based newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija published on Tuesday.
The lawyer said that the international community and the ICTY would regret for a long time to come the fact that Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte had refused a proposal made by General Gotovina 18 months ago.
"She will not get a better offer from General Gotovina. His offer, that he should be heard in Zagreb first and that his status should be decided after that, is still on," Misetic stressed.
The interview with Misetic came days after the European Council decided to open membership talks with Croatia in March next year provided that the country fully cooperated with the Hague tribunal.
Misetic said it was not necessary for Gotovina to appear in The Hague by March 17, 2005 in order for Croatia's cooperation with the tribunal to be assessed as satisfactory, but that Croatia "should do all it can to meet the international obligations it has assumed".
He recalled that Croatia had been told before that without Gotovina in The Hague it would not obtain a positive opinion on its membership application, a candidate status, and a date for the start of entry talks, and that in the end Croatia got it all.
"Such ideas are being pushed all the time, while the only thing that is relevant to the EU is that Croatia should do all it can to resolve the case," the lawyer said.
At the end of the interview, Misetic expressed his disappointment about the lack of readiness on the part of the Government to prove the general's innocence.
"General Gotovina expected more from this Government in resolving his case," Misetic said, adding that the Government could disprove the indictment if it so wished by investigating the authenticity of the transcript of the Brijuni meeting of July 31, 1995.
The lawyer said that for reasons unknown to him the Government was doing nothing to prove that his client was innocent and that the transcript was actually a forgery.