Croatian judiciary is fully independent and several cases have proved that Croatian courts are capable of organising war crimes trials, Sanader said during a visit to the town of Sisak on Tuesday.
On Monday evening, the spokesman for the office of the prosecutor of the UN war crimes tribunal ruled out the possibility for the prosecution to agree with the referral of the cases of the three Croatian Army generals to Croatia.
Nikiforov was quoted by Croatian Television as saying that by insisting to be involved in the cases of generals Ante Gotovina, Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac in the capacity of amicus curiae so as to contest the allegation of criminal enterprise in their indictments, the Croatian government had taken sides with the accused.
Croatia believes that the government has a right to the role of an amicus curiae in trials against Gotovina and the other generals, because it holds that their indictments are not correct, Sanader said, adding that in its capacity as a friend of the court "Croatia has the right to explain the background, historical circumstances and the situation on the ground" in the period covered by the indictments.
According to the Croatian premier, Nikiforov wrongly assessed the further course of action, because "in case Croatia is allowed to act as an amicus curiae in the trials, this will not mean at all that the Croatian judiciary would be partial in the trials of the three generals".