RIJEKA, Aug 29 (Hina) - Two witnesses who should testify in the trial against the Gospic Group for war crimes against civilians will be heard by a competent court in Germany, where the two are currently located, the Deputy State
Prosecutor Doris Hrast stated in Rijeka on Thursday.
RIJEKA, Aug 29 (Hina) - Two witnesses who should testify in the
trial against the Gospic Group for war crimes against civilians
will be heard by a competent court in Germany, where the two are
currently located, the Deputy State Prosecutor Doris Hrast stated
in Rijeka on Thursday. #L#
The two witnesses are Zdenko Ropac and Zdenko Bando who, along with
Milan Levar, in 1993 disclosed details relating to the
disappearance and murder of civilians in the Gospic area in 1991.
Levar, an unprotected witness of the UN war crimes tribunal at The
Hague, died in August 2000 when a explosive was placed in the yard of
his home in Gospic. Levar's assassin is still not known. Ropac and
Bando are currently in Germany and have been given new identities.
Ropac and Bando, who are referred to as "Hague witnesses", were
subpoenaed in Germany, where their location was investigated by
Interpol, Hrast said.
As with witnesses who do not wish to come to Croatia and will be
heard at the end of September in Belgrade, arrangements were made
for Ropac and Bando to testify in Germany. "The date of their
hearing has still not been determined," Hrast said.
In an interview for the latest issue of the Globus weekly, Ropac
said that he had not been subpoenaed to testify in the Gospic trial
and would do so only if his security could be guaranteed.
He claimed in the interview that the accused Mirko Norac and Tihomir
Oreskovic were responsible for the murder of civilians, and that
they prepared an assassination of the late president Franjo Tudjman
during his visit to Gospic.
Ropac said that he preserved tape recordings made in 1991 and 1992
which could have some other people brought into the charges for the
murder of civilians in Gospic.
(hina) sp/ha sb