ZAGREB, April 12 (Hina) - Bosnian Croat Tihomir Blaskic's defence is working intensively on a court deposition based on an assumption that the facts in his case were established incorrectly, and that the application of the undisputed
part of the international penal law was breached. Blaskic's defence a month ago formally announced an appeal to the 45-years-imprisonment sentence by The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. "The Tribunal has considerably raised the legal standard in connection with a commander's responsibility and created a new international penal law which, according to us, clashes with the Geneva conventions on which this Tribunal's work is based," Blaskic's attorney Anto Nobilo said in Zagreb on Wednesday. Last week, Nobilo visited Blaskic, a former commander of the Central Bosnia Operations Zone, for the second time since his conviction. In their appeal, Blaskic
ZAGREB, April 12 (Hina) - Bosnian Croat Tihomir Blaskic's defence
is working intensively on a court deposition based on an assumption
that the facts in his case were established incorrectly, and that
the application of the undisputed part of the international penal
law was breached.
Blaskic's defence a month ago formally announced an appeal to the
45-years-imprisonment sentence by The Hague-based International
Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
"The Tribunal has considerably raised the legal standard in
connection with a commander's responsibility and created a new
international penal law which, according to us, clashes with the
Geneva conventions on which this Tribunal's work is based,"
Blaskic's attorney Anto Nobilo said in Zagreb on Wednesday.
Last week, Nobilo visited Blaskic, a former commander of the
Central Bosnia Operations Zone, for the second time since his
conviction.
In their appeal, Blaskic's defence will also refer to new facts
which have come to light in the "Kupreskic and Others" and "Kordic-
Cerkez" cases and which speak in Blaskic's favour, and establish
the contents of documents recently discovered in official Croatian
archives.
The Hague war crimes tribunal sentenced Blaskic in March,
proclaiming him guilty of all crimes he had been charged with,
namely crimes against humanity, violations of the law and customs
of war, and violations of the Geneva conventions, committed during
the Croat-Muslim conflict in central Bosnia-Herzegovina between
May 1992 and January 1994.
The prosecution did not announce an appeal, demanding life-time
imprisonment. The defence requested six months for preparing an
appeal.
(hina) ha mm