Norac's attorney Zeljko Olujic dismissed accusations that he had previously shifted responsibility onto special police commanders Mladen Markac and Zeljko Sacic and that he was trying to change the public perception of Ademi.
"We never accused Markac and Sacic. We believe that they are honourable soldiers, but we underlined the fact that Mirko Norac had never commanded special police units," Olujic said after Wednesday's hearing in the trial for war crimes committed during the 1993 operation "Medak Pocket".
"We only requested that the County Prosecutor's Office state its position on the statement in which Ademi claims not to have had real control over the operation and I do not understand why the other defence team is upset about that," Olujic said.
However, he said that it was significant that the rival defence team also clashed with attorneys representing General Ante Gotovina before the Hague war crimes tribunal.
Ademi's attorney Jadranka Slokovic said that Ademi's statement could not have been included in the case file as evidence and that it did not charge Norac or anyone else with any crimes.
"The only thing that is true is that Ademi says in the statement that he did not have actual control over the entire Medak Pocket area during that operation."
Generals Norac and Ademi are charged according to command responsibility with crimes against civilians and the excessive and random shelling of Serb villages, which resulted in the killing of civilians. The indictment states by name all civilian victims and captured soldiers who were killed, after some of them had been subjected to cruel torture and were massacred.
At the time of Operation "Medak Pocket", Ademi was acting commander of the Gospic Military District, while Norac was commander of the Ninth Guard Motorised Brigade and of Sector 1.