The UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague indicted Gotovina in June 2001 for crimes against humanity committed against Serbs from the Krajina region during and after Operation Storm in the summer and autumn of 1995. According to the indictment, the crimes were committed as part of a joint criminal enterprise carried out by the Croatian political and military leadership, led by President Franjo Tudjman, with the aim to forcibly and permanently remove the Serb population from the Krajina region.
"If granted the request, the government is convinced that it will help establish the truth regarding the prosecution's allegation that the then Croatian military and political leadership had participated in the joint criminal enterprise, and the defence's claim that there had been no joint criminal enterprise to begin with," read a letter submitted by Croatian Justice Minister Ana Lovrin on Monday.
In her letter, Lovrin said prominent lawyers, historians and scientists would be working on the Croatian government's amicus curiae brief.
At a government session held in Zagreb earlier this month, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader announced such requests wold be submitted in the Gotovina case, the Cermak and Markac case and the Prlic and others case. He stressed that Croatia could neither agree with nor accept the allegations from the indictments referring to a criminal enterprise.