COURT FINDS GUILTY, SENTENCES 11 OF 22 GENOCIDE, WAR CRIMES INDICTEES

VUKOVAR, May 19 (Hina) - The Vukovar County Court, presided over by judge Miroslav Sovanj, on Friday found guilty 11 out of 22 persons indicted for genocide and war crimes against civilians during the siege and immediately upon the fall of Vukovar in 1991. The first indictee, Stevan Curnic, the only indictee available to Croatian authorities, was sentenced to a single sentence of 15 years in prison. Simo Samardzija and Bozo Latinovic were sentenced to 15 years in prison each. Damir Sireta was sentenced to 12 years in prison, whereas Radivoje Jakovljevic and Nenad Zigic were sentenced to a 20-year imprisonment each. Mihajlo Katalina, Goran Mugos and Zoran Stankovic received five-year prison sentences each while Milan Ikac was sentenced to seven years in prison. The court also found Sladjana Korda guilty and she was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. Goran Lancuzanin, Stevan Vladislavljevic, Petar Rajsic, Milos Bulic, Mirko Vojnovic, Stanko Vujanovic, Darko Fot, Marko Crevar, Stanimir Avramovic and Marko Kraguljac were not proven guilty. The court established that indictee Milan Samardzija died in the meantime and therefore discontinued proceedings against him. In his closing statement, judge Sovanj recalled that 44 witnesses and three expert witnesses had testified during the year-long trial. The task of the court was not to give a political, sociological and some other judgement or to condemn the Vukovar events of November 1991 but to establish liability for every individual crime. The court decided that the determination and ruthlessness of the indicted in committing the crimes was an aggravating circumstance. Asked whether he understood the verdict, Curnic gave an affirmative answer, adding though he did not feel guilty of any of the crimes he was charged with. (hina) mm rml