RIJEKA, Dec 5 (Hina) - During Thursday's main hearing in the trial against the so-called Gospic Group at the Rijeka County Court, the president of the panel of judges, Ika Saric, examined a file on indictee Tihomir Oreskovic drawn up
at the secret service of the former Yugoslavia for the period up to 1990.
RIJEKA, Dec 5 (Hina) - During Thursday's main hearing in the trial
against the so-called Gospic Group at the Rijeka County Court, the
president of the panel of judges, Ika Saric, examined a file on
indictee Tihomir Oreskovic drawn up at the secret service of the
former Yugoslavia for the period up to 1990. #L#
Agents of the UDBA presented information about Oreskovic's
cooperation with groups of Croatian emigrants after he went abroad.
The file also mentions his cooperation with secret services of the
former Yugoslavia and the United States' CIA.
Oreskovic said that the information from the file was mostly
incorrect and edited together from several documents.
He said the file's aim was to compromise him, which was the intent of
agents of the former UDBA who transferred to Croatian intelligence
services with the cooperation of Josip Manolic and Smiljan Reljic.
Oreskovic said that they wanted to discredit him before former
President Franjo Tudjman and Defence Minister Gojko Susak with
false information about his cooperation with foreign secret
services. He said he had never worked for any intelligence service
except for one, but he said he would speak about that later.
Milan Relic, a police officer sent to help the Gospic police at the
start of the war, took the witness stand today. Witnesses from the
"Levar Group" who testified in Germany claimed Relic had found
graves at a liquidation site in Pazariste.
Relic refuted this, saying that he had been given the information
about possible graves from a resident whom he does not remember.
When he visited the site, he saw neither graves nor bodies. Relic
told the court he could not pinpoint the location.
Judge Saric adjourned the hearing until January 7. The testimonies
of several other witnesses as the trial continues will conclude the
part where the prosecution and defence called witnesses.
Remaining are the testimonies of the indictees Tihomir Oreskovic,
Ivica Rozic, Mirko Norac, Stjepan Grandic and Milan Canic, after
which the defence and prosecution will present their closing
statements. The panel of judges will then pass a verdict.
The trial began at the end of January this year. More than 150
witnesses have given testimony in the proceedings so far. The five
Gospic Group members have been accused of the mass abduction and
liquidation of mostly Serb civilians in the Gospic and Karlobag
areas in the autumn of 1991. According to the indictment, the five
are responsible for the killing of at least 44 persons.
(hina) lml sb