ZAGREB, Nov 28 (Hina) - The Zagreb Municipal Court concluded the main hearing in the case of part of a lawsuit filed against the government by retired Croatian Army general Ante Gotovina, who is being sought by the UN war crimes
tribunal in The Hague.
ZAGREB, Nov 28 (Hina) - The Zagreb Municipal Court concluded the
main hearing in the case of part of a lawsuit filed against the
government by retired Croatian Army general Ante Gotovina, who is
being sought by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. #L#
Gotovina is seeking 77 documents that the government has sent to the
Hague tribunal, and the government was given 15 days to decide on
another request for an additional 129 documents.
The president of a three-judge panel, Slavko Pavkovic, announced
that a judgement would be handed down soon.
Proceedings in the case "Gotovina vs. the Government" were repeated
after the Zagreb County Court had pronounced a judgement against
the government null and void, under which the government had to
provide Gotovina's defence counsel with all the documents it had
sent to the Hague tribunal, which charged Gotovina with war
crimes.
The proceedings were renewed after the makeup of the panel of judges
changed.
The initial lawsuit was declared invalid because it did not specify
the documents being sought. After revising the suit, Gotovina's
lawyers now request the 77 documents that were dispatched to The
Hague. Since the government acknowledged that it had sent the
documents in question, the defence attorneys asked the judges to
hand down a judgement on this part of the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was expanded to include a request for another 129
documents which, according to Ivo Pukanic, a journalist and co-
owner of the Nacional weekly, had also been sent to The Hague. These
documents apparently include orders and reports written by
Gotovina during Operation Storm and might help in his defence.
One of the lawyers for the fugitive general, Ante Vukorepa, said it
was intolerable that journalists should have access to the
documents and the attorneys not.
Deputy state prosecutor Zlata Hrvoj, who represents the
government, opposed the lawsuit being expanded, saying that the
documents did not contain any information other than that from the
press.
She said that if it was true that the documents were listed under the
codename "Kozjak 95" as claimed by the defence, the documents
probably contained classified information.
The government stood by its claim that the lawsuit was unfounded and
that it was not obliged to hand over the documents, because
Gotovina's lawyers were not recognised by the Hague tribunal as his
defence counsel.
Another lawyer for Gotovina, Ivo Farcic, said he hoped for a better
cooperation with the new government because they had signed an
interpellation request for the delivery of documents while they
were in opposition.
Farcic added that he also hoped that the new government would change
the constitutional law on cooperation with the tribunal.
(hina) vm