ZAGREB, March 8 (Hina) - Attorney Luka Misetic said on Monday the defence of fugitive Croatian General Ante Gotovina was unhappy with the Hague war crimes tribunal's amended indictment even though he was now in a much more favourable
position, not only because the prosecution dropped one charge but also because the scope of the crimes he was accused of was significantly reduced.
ZAGREB, March 8 (Hina) - Attorney Luka Misetic said on Monday the
defence of fugitive Croatian General Ante Gotovina was unhappy with
the Hague war crimes tribunal's amended indictment even though he was
now in a much more favourable position, not only because the
prosecution dropped one charge but also because the scope of the
crimes he was accused of was significantly reduced.#L#
"Gotovina is no longer accused of the ethnic persecution of 200,000
Serbs but is accused of participation in a joint criminal enterprise
which, according to the prosecution, resulted in the persecution of
tens of thousands of Serbs," Misetic said in a press release on behalf
of Gotovina's defence team.
Such allegations do not correspond to facts or actual developments in
Croatian territories liberated in 1995's Operation Storm, which was
neither planned nor commanded nor carried out as an ethnic cleansing
operation but as one aimed at liberating Croatian territory, said the
press release.
It can be argued with certainty that it has transpired once again that
the previous Croatian government made an enormous oversight when it
obstructed Gotovina's defence for more than two years by denying
access to documents, the press release added.
Misetic said the defence was certain now that the prosecution dropped
the gravest charge, that if it had been granted access to documents it
would have proved that the other charges against Gotovina were not
based in fact but in false statements and selected documents. This
will very soon be proved to the judges of the Hague tribunal, he
added.
Gotovina's U.S. attorney said he was also confident that if a trial
chamber was set up in the next few weeks, the judges, while respecting
the rules of procedure, would finally drop other unfounded accusations
from the indictment and thus prevent chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte
in her attempts to treat Operation Storm as a criminal operation and
the legal Croatian armed force as a criminal organisation.
(Hina) ha sb