The defence team said that both the indictment and the motion describing how the prosecution would prove the responsibility of generals Ante Gotovina, Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac for crimes committed in Operation Storm, breached international law and UN conventions by equating the status of an internationally recognised state and a self-proclaimed entity.
Defence attorneys Miroslav Separovic and Goran Mikulicic said in a motion that the prosecution's description of the historical context of Operation Storm was distorted and completely contrary to its description of the same historical context in the case against former Croatian Serb rebel leader Milan Martic.
The defence team quoted the prosecution as saying in the case against Martic that the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the Croatian Constitution had guaranteed all rights to Croatian Serbs, that their secession was unlawful, that they were backed by the JNA, that they demonised Croats by calling them Ustashas, and that they sabotaged international peace efforts.
Markac's attorneys also dismissed as unfounded the prosecution's allegations about Markac's liability for crimes committed in the course of Operation Storm.