RIJEKA, June 25 (Hina) - The trial of retired General Mirko Norac and another four parties accused of war crimes over civilians was adjourned only 40 minutes after beginning at the county court in the northern Adriatic city of Rijeka
on Monday.
RIJEKA, June 25 (Hina) - The trial of retired General Mirko Norac
and another four parties accused of war crimes over civilians was
adjourned only 40 minutes after beginning at the county court in the
northern Adriatic city of Rijeka on Monday.#L#
Proceedings were adjourned after the defence requested the
exemption of court president Slavko Petric and the president of the
panel of judges, Judge Ika Saric. The requests will be forwarded to
the Supreme Court for consideration.
Explaining the exemption request, the defence said there was no
justified reason to prosecute the defendants in Rijeka instead of
Gospic, where the crimes were alleged to have taken place.
If there were doubts about the Gospic county court's partiality in
favour of the defendants, the same logic can be applied as to the
partiality of the Rijeka court against them, said Zeljko Olujic,
defence attorney for Tihomir Oreskovic, the first on the
indictment.
The defence further said the Supreme Court decision to conduct
investigating and court proceedings in Rijeka devalued the Gospic
court. Exemption was also requested due to the Rijeka court's heavy
agenda with complex cases, an issue court president Petric has
often pointed to.
On the other hand, the representatives of the injured parties, the
victims' families, requested the exemption of Olujic and two other
defence attorneys, Bosiljko Misetic and Ivan Kern, who, they say,
held senior judicial posts when the alleged crimes were committed.
The injured parties proposed calling the three defence attorneys as
witnesses in the case, maintaining the three should be familiar
with many events dating back to 1991, and that as witnesses, they
should not be present at the main hearing.
Adjourning proceedings, Judge Saric said the trial would resume on
July 3 if the Supreme Court overruled the exemption requests.
The Rijeka County State Prosecutor's Office indictment charges
Norac, Oreskovic, Brigadier Milan Canic, Ivica Rozic, and Stjepan
Grandic with war crimes committed in the central Croatian Gospic
area towards the end of 1991.
The five men are accused of abducting and executing a group of
Croats and Croatian Serbs at the Pazariste and Lipova Glavica
locations, and of abducting three Croatian Serbs from Karlobag who
were later killed.
(hina) ha sb