ZAGREB, Sept 2 (Hina) - The war crimes trial of five men accused in the Pakracka Poljana case resumes after summer recess on Sept. 5 at the Zagreb County Court.
ZAGREB, Sept 2 (Hina) - The war crimes trial of five men accused in
the Pakracka Poljana case resumes after summer recess on Sept. 5 at
the Zagreb County Court. #L#
The last hearing, before a panel of judges presided by Judge Rajka
Tomerlin-Almer, was held on June 21, when testimonies were to be
given by Ljubica Ivosevic, the wife of a man killed in the Pakracka
Poljana region, and Nikola Peles, a survivor of a prison there.
The trial of Munib Suljic, Igor Mikola, Sinisa Rimac, Miroslav
Bajramovic, and Branko Saric are on retrial after the Supreme Court
last year revoked a 1999 sentence which had set them free on two
counts of the indictment.
They are being tried for the 1991 murder of Aleksandar Antic and the
unlawful arrest of and extortion from Milos Ivosevic, Rade Pajic,
and Marko Grujic, who were taken from Zagreb to Pakracka Poljana in
October 1991 before being killed by uknown persons.
Four indictees are defending themselves in freedom, while
Bajramovic, who is at large, is being tried in absentia. The Zagreb
County Court has issued an arrest warrant for him.
The defendants have pled not guilty.
The public learned about the Pakracka Poljana case in 1992 after the
police, investigating the murder of the Serb family Zec in Zagreb,
came across information about crimes allegedly committed by an
Interior Ministry reserve unit which, at the onset of the Homeland
War, was headed by Tomislav Mercep.
The case "rested" until December 1997, when an indictment was
finally issued against Bajramovic, who, in an interview in "Feral
Tribune" weekly, spoke about the crimes committed by Mercep's unit
in the Pakrac area.
(hina) ha sb