"We expect a fair and correct trial. We trust the Hague tribunal. We will prove that Gotovina cannot answer for the crimes which occurred after Operation Storm," Ivanovic said.
General Gotovina's war path shows that he cannot be linked with the crimes which, according to the indictment, occurred in the period from August to mid-November 1995.
"Gotovina was a military commander of Operation Storm who in his area defeated the army of the RSK (Republika Srpska Krajina) and enabled the establishment of civil authority. Already on August 8 he issued an order for active defence and withdrew elite units," Ivanovic said.
The attorney recalled that those units were welcomed back in towns throughout Croatia and that Gojko Susak, Croatia's defence minister at the time, on August 9 announced that the operation had resulted in a victory and liberation of the occupied areas.
"General Gotovina cannot answer for the crimes which occurred after that date because from 9 to 16 September he was on his honeymoon trip, which had been approved by President Franjo Tudjman, after which he went to Bosnia-Herzegovina to help crush Karadzic and Mladic," Marinovic said.
In the last four and a half years, which is how long Gotovina was on the run, the defence team was preparing his defence, Ivanovic said, adding that the team had obtained from the Croatian government hundreds of documents and interviewed several hundred participants in and witnesses to Operation Storm from the country and abroad, as well as all commanders in the operation, from the Split Military District and the Defence Ministry.
The defence team expects preparations for the trial to last from six to nine months, and the trial itself around two years.
Attorney Ivanovic, like his colleague Luka Misetic, does not doubt that there will be a joinder of proceedings and that their client will be put on trial together with generals Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac, who are charged with the same violations of international humanitarian law during and after Operation Storm.
Ivanovic believes that none of the three accused will be at a disadvantage because of the joinder since the powers of each of them are known, as well as how long they had them.
Ivanovic said that he and Misetic would visit Gotovina in prison on Monday and be with him in the courtroom at 12.45 pm, when he is scheduled to enter his plea.
General Ante Gotovina, aged 50, who was on the run for four and a half years since the indictment against him was issued in June 2001, was arrested in Spain on December 7 and transferred to The Hague on Saturday. He is charged with seven counts of crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war committed against Serb civilians and their property in the area of Knin in the course and after Operation Storm.
As commander of the Split Military District, he was the overall commander of Croatian Army operations launched to liberate occupied areas in the so-called Sector South.
He is charged on the basis of individual and command responsibility with five counts of persecution on political, racial and religious grounds, deportation and forced displacement, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages and the plunder of public and private property.
He is charged on the basis of command responsibility with two counts of murder and other inhumane acts.