The defence team representing the Croatian general before the Hague war crimes tribunal also dismissed the prosecution's allegation about a joint criminal enterprise whose participants, led by the first Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, allegedly planned and carried out an ethnic cleansing campaign during Operation Storm.
"Ivan Cermak confirms that there was no joint criminal enterprise, that he is not responsible for the crimes cited in the indictment, that he did not plan, instigate, order, commit or aid in any way in the commission of the crimes, nor did he have command responsibility over the perpetrators," reads the pre-trial brief.
Like General Mladen Markac's defence team, Cermak's team too rejected the historical context of Operation Storm as described by the prosecution and recalled that the same prosecutors, including the chief prosecutor in the case "Gotovina, Cermak and Markac", Alan Tieger, had given a completely different description of the same historical context in the cases against former Serb rebel leaders Milan Martic and Momcilo Krajisnik.
Cermak's attorneys said they accepted the fact that crimes had been committed during Operation Storm, but not as part of a criminal enterprise, and that their client condemned those crimes.
Cermak was indicted, along with generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac, for war crimes committed against the Serb population in Operation Storm.