WASHINGTON, Oct 22 (Hina) - A lawyer of Croatian fugitive general Ante Gotovina has forwarded a request to the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal, asking it to refute the amended indictment which the tribunal's Chief Prosecutor, Carla
Del Ponte, issued against the general. The lawyer Luka Misetic also asks the tribunal to drop the charges pressed against his client, accused of ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Croatia and crimes allegedly committed in the wake of the 1995 'Storm' liberating operation.
WASHINGTON, Oct 22 (Hina) - A lawyer of Croatian fugitive general
Ante Gotovina has forwarded a request to the Hague-based UN war
crimes tribunal, asking it to refute the amended indictment which
the tribunal's Chief Prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, issued against
the general. The lawyer Luka Misetic also asks the tribunal to drop
the charges pressed against his client, accused of ethnic cleansing
of Serbs from Croatia and crimes allegedly committed in the wake of
the 1995 'Storm' liberating operation. #L#
Misetic, Gotovina's lawyer in Chicago, told Hina on Tuesday that
Del Ponte had submitted the amended indictment against Gotovina to
the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) judges to confirm it, and within seven days the competent
judge should decide whether to confirm the document or not.
The names of two victims from the previous indictment, who in the
meantime were proven to be alive, were withdrawn and the new
indictment was amended with the names of other victims whose
identity was subsequently established.
The spokeswoman for the Prosecutor's Office, Florence Hartmann,
said on Tuesday that the indictment would also be extended but she
would not reveal any details, explaining that she was not allowed to
do it before the competent judge confirmed the amended and extended
indictment.
According to Misetic's deposition to the tribunal, a copy of which
he sent also to Hina, the lawyer asks the judge to refute all the
counts of the proposed amended indictment which charge General
Gotovina with deportation, persecution and forcible displacement
of the Serb population in the Croatian area of Krajina, and those
which charge Gotovina with crimes allegedly committed in Croatia
after 20 August 1995.
As regards the request for dropping charges for the ethnic
cleansing of Croatian Serbs, Misetic refers to the fact that during
the trial of former Serbian and Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic before the ICTY the prosecution dismissed accusations
that Croatian military forces, led by Gen. Gotovina, had expelled
Serbs from Croatia.
As regards the dropping of charges for alleged crimes committed
after 20 August 1995, the lawyer said that the Storm liberation
operation had been wrapped up by 20 August and the tribunal was
authorised to process crimes committed only during the armed
conflicts. Consequently, Misetic concludes that the competent
judge should throw all the points of the amended indictment which
accuse Gotovina of the forcible displacement of local Serbs as well
as counts which charge Gotovina with alleged crimes perpetrated
after 20 August.
On 8 June 2001, the ICTY indicted Gotovina for crimes against
humanity and breaches of the laws and customs of war, committed
against Croatian Serbs during the 1995 operation named "Oluja"
(Storm). The indictment was kept confidential until its unsealing
on 26 July 2001. The retired general has been on the run since then.
(hina) ms