GOSPIC, Sept 14 (Hina) - Tihomir Oreskovic and four other persons, arrested in Gospic on Tuesday under suspicion of committing war crimes against civilians, were transferred to the Rijeka County Court under heavy security shortly
after 6pm on Thursday.
GOSPIC, Sept 14 (Hina) - Tihomir Oreskovic and four other persons,
arrested in Gospic on Tuesday under suspicion of committing war
crimes against civilians, were transferred to the Rijeka County
Court under heavy security shortly after 6pm on Thursday. #L#
The transfer of the arrested persons under police escort began in a
tense atmosphere when their family members rushed towards the
official vehicles wanting to say goodbye to them, but special and
other police officers, armed with automatic rifles, prevented
them.
A melee broke out when somebody shouted: "Take a photo of the
commies!" Immediately after that paddy wagons were mobbed by the
arrested persons' family members who were crying and shouting
insults at policemen.
During a scuffle, while a policeman and photo-journalist of the
"Vecernji List" daily were scrambling around a camera as police
were trying to prevent photoreporters to film the event, threats
were directed towards journalists just as in the morning and
yesterday.
The 48-hour-long detention for the arrested men expires by 11.00 am
Friday and in this period an investigating judge in Rijeka, who will
be in charge of the case, should decide whether an investigation can
be launched, the arrested left in custody or released.
Defence attorneys of the five arrested men announced that they
would file an appeal with Croatia's Constitutional Court and the
European Court for Human Rights against the ruling of the Croatian
Supreme Court to transfer the jurisdiction from Gospic to the
Rijeka court.
The five men were arrested on Tuesday on suspicion they had
committed war. crimes against Serb civilians in Gospic in 1991. One
of those five suspects is General Tihomir Levar, who used to be the
secretary of the Gospic-based war crisis centre for Lika, and whom
the recently killed Milan Levar had accused of crimes. Levar, who
was interviewed by the Hague-based international tribunal in 1997
and 1998 about the matter, lost his life in a bombing in Gospic at
the end of last month.
(hina) jn ms