An investigating judge, Kresimir Devcic, told Hina today that he had interviewed Radin, the last of eight witnesses - staff members in the Office of the President.
"I have questioned all the witnesses proposed by the prosecution, and I will return the document to the Zagreb Municipal Prosecutor's Office, which is to decide on further steps," Devcic said, declining to reveal the contents of today's interview. Radin was employed with the Office of President Franjo Tudjman in 1995 and remained at that post until early 2000, when he was relieved of duty.
Judge Devcic declined to say what he had learnt while questioning other witnesses, two former and five current employees of the Office of the President. They were expected to explain the procedure of taping, copying and storing the so-called Brijuni transcripts, namely the transcripts of conversations between the then Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and the military leadership on the island of Brijuni ahead of the August 1995 Operation 'Storm'.
The probe into this case was launched after lawyers for the runaway general Ante Gotovina, who is wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, pressed charges against unknown perpetrators on suspicion that they forged the transcripts. Gotovina's defence team did so after Croatian media published segments of the transcripts speculating that those documents were used as a basis for indictments which the tribunal issued against generals Ante Gotovina, Mladen Markac, and Ivan Cermak.