Life imprisonment befits such a heinous crime, Prosecutor Marks Moore said, adding that such a sentence should be handed down if the trial chamber found that the three accused, known as the Vukovar Three, had formed a criminal enterprise to kill or expel such a large number of people, or if it was found that they had ordered the crime, assisted in its commission or failed in their capacity as commanders to prevent it.
According to the indictment, after the fall of Vukovar in November 1991 to the besieging Serb-backed JNA forces, the three men ordered that about 300 persons be transferred from the Vukovar hospital to a JNA barracks, from where they were taken to the Ovcara farm and executed by Serb paramilitary forces. 260 Croatian prisoners of war and civilians were executed.