ZAGREB, Feb 19 (Hina) - The Bjelovar County Prosecutor's Office has appealed with the Supreme Court asking that the non-final verdicts the Bjelovar County Court handed down in the trial against four Virovitica residents be quashed and
the case returned to the court of first instance. The county prosecutor's office believes the one-year prison sentences imposed on three indictees for war crimes against civilians were too mild and that the principal indictee was acquitted on the basis of prematurely adopted conclusions. The Bjelovar County Court in late January delivered non-final verdicts in the trial against former police officers Ivan Vrban, Andjelko Kasaj and Luka Perak, sentencing them to one year in prison and declaring them guilty of the abduction and torture of Serb civilians in a military prison in the Virovitica army barracks in 1991. However, they were acquitted of the murder of Virovitica Serb Bog
ZAGREB, Feb 19 (Hina) - The Bjelovar County Prosecutor's Office has
appealed with the Supreme Court asking that the non-final verdicts
the Bjelovar County Court handed down in the trial against four
Virovitica residents be quashed and the case returned to the court
of first instance.
The county prosecutor's office believes the one-year prison
sentences imposed on three indictees for war crimes against
civilians were too mild and that the principal indictee was
acquitted on the basis of prematurely adopted conclusions.
The Bjelovar County Court in late January delivered non-final
verdicts in the trial against former police officers Ivan Vrban,
Andjelko Kasaj and Luka Perak, sentencing them to one year in prison
and declaring them guilty of the abduction and torture of Serb
civilians in a military prison in the Virovitica army barracks in
1991. However, they were acquitted of the murder of Virovitica Serb
Bogdan Mudrinic.
The principal indictee Zeljko Iharos was acquitted and released.
The Bjelovar prosecution claims it has appealed due to significant
breaches of criminal procedure, wrongfully established facts,
violations of the Penal Code, and the punishment ruling. It has
therefore suggested that the Supreme Court quash the verdict and
return the case to the court of first instance.
The prosecution stresses that in reaching the verdict the court did
not take into account testimonies by a number of witnesses saying it
was military police who took Mudrinic to the town barracks, where he
was beaten and tortured by Vrban, Kasaj and Perak. Nothing is known
about Mudrinic since then.
The prosecution claims the court failed to establish the decisive
fact that Mudrinic died from injuries inflicted on him by the three
convicts. Namely, the court explained that the body had never been
found so the exact cause of death could not be established.
The prosecution also claims the court violated the Penal Code
because it did not question two witnesses, injured parties, but
only had their statements read out.
The prosecution considers premature the court's conclusion that
the principal indictee Iharos, a former military police commander,
did not know what was going on in and around the military prison and
was therefore not obliged to take necessary preventive measures.
The sentences are too mild and do not serve the purpose of criminal
punishment, it is concluded in the appeal of the Bjelovar County
Prosecutor's Office.
(hina) sb rml