RIJEKA, Nov 22 (Hina) - The panel of judges at the Rijeka County Court presided by Judge Ika Saric on Friday refused proposals for questioning a score of witnesses suggested by Tihomir Oreskovic, one of the defendants in the so-called
Gospic Group war crimes trial.
RIJEKA, Nov 22 (Hina) - The panel of judges at the Rijeka County
Court presided by Judge Ika Saric on Friday refused proposals for
questioning a score of witnesses suggested by Tihomir Oreskovic,
one of the defendants in the so-called Gospic Group war crimes
trial. #L#
The panel of judges sustained the objection of a prosecutor, Doris
Hrast, who opposed Oreskovic's proposal to call another 20
witnesses to the stand. The panel explained the proposal of the
defence referred mostly to facts which have been established to
date in the trial, or to facts irrelevant for a fair verdict.
Some of the refused would-be witnesses are war-time interior
ministers Josip Boljkovac and Ivan Vekic, prominent politicians at
the time Vice Vukojevic and Slavko Degoricija, and a general of the
former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), Marijan Cad.
The panel accepted Oreksovic's proposals for low-profile
witnesses.
During today's hearing, forensic experts from the Rijeka Forensic
Institute, Drazen Cuculic and Alen Bosnar, spoke about autopsies
they carried out on bodies exhumed from the Debelo Brdo graveyard
near Udbina in 2000. Those were civilians killed at Lipova Glavica
in October 1991.
They said most of the 12 corpses on which they carried out an
autopsy, had broken bones and shot wounds, and bullets were found in
some of them. They added the exact cause of death could not be
established given that some remains were missing.
Bosnar said the fracture of the skull, i.e. a blow to the head with a
hard object, was probably the cause of death of one person.
Indictee Stjepan Grandic is charged with the murder of 24 civilians
at Lipova Glavica, while Tihomir Oreskovic and Mirko Norac are
charged with ordering the killing of those victims.
The trial resumes on Monday.
(hina) ms sb