ZAGREB, Sept 5 (Hina) - On behalf of General Ante Gotovina's defence team, attorney Luka Misetic said today the attorneys still have not received an official reply from the government, and therefore cannot comment on claims that the
government will probably deny the defence team's request to submit documents it had sent to the Hague-based international war crimes tribunal. Misetic was asked to comment on the issue after Hina received intelligence from a source close to the government that the defence counsel's request for the documents would be denied. Since Gotovina, retired Croatian army general, is out of the reach of the Hague tribunal and the Croatian judiciary, the Hague tribunal does not recognise his defence letters of attorney and considers them useless, the source said. Misetic told Hina the attorneys' request was based on the Declaration on Cooperation with the Hague tribunal passed by the parlia
ZAGREB, Sept 5 (Hina) - On behalf of General Ante Gotovina's defence
team, attorney Luka Misetic said today the attorneys still have not
received an official reply from the government, and therefore
cannot comment on claims that the government will probably deny the
defence team's request to submit documents it had sent to the Hague-
based international war crimes tribunal.
Misetic was asked to comment on the issue after Hina received
intelligence from a source close to the government that the defence
counsel's request for the documents would be denied.
Since Gotovina, retired Croatian army general, is out of the reach
of the Hague tribunal and the Croatian judiciary, the Hague
tribunal does not recognise his defence letters of attorney and
considers them useless, the source said.
Misetic told Hina the attorneys' request was based on the
Declaration on Cooperation with the Hague tribunal passed by the
parliament last April, which stipulates that all documentation
must be made available both to the prosecution and the defence.
"We, thus, believe, that the government has an obligation to submit
the documents to the defence, and there is not one regulation or the
Hague tribunal's statute to forbid the government from doing so,"
Gotovina's attorney stated.
Misetic commented on a statement uttered by Interior Ministry
spokeswoman that "police still have no information about Gotovina
having left the country and therefore have not issued an
international arrest warrant," stressing he "did not understand
the lack of an international warrant when the France Presse agency
reported back on August 28 that an international warrant for
Gotovina's arrest had been issued".
The Hague tribunal has indicted General Gotovina for crimes against
humanity and the violation of the rules and customs of war during
and after the Croatian military liberation operation "Storm".
(hina) lml sb