ZAGREB, April 30 (Hina) - The UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague has refused to grant retired Croatian generals Mladen Markac and Ivan Cermak provisional release before they are interviewed by prosecutors, the Croatian Justice
Ministry said on Friday.
ZAGREB, April 30 (Hina) - The UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague has
refused to grant retired Croatian generals Mladen Markac and Ivan
Cermak provisional release before they are interviewed by prosecutors,
the Croatian Justice Ministry said on Friday.#L#
"The Justice Ministry's Department for Cooperation with International
Criminal Courts has received the decision from the Hague tribunal
today," Ministry spokeswoman Vesna Dovranic told Hina, adding that
defence attorneys for the two generals had been notified of the
decision.
Dovranic declined to answer if the letter from the tribunal specified
when Markac and Cermak would be interviewed by prosecutors. She said
that "the matter is being addressed" and that the Ministry expected
interviews to be held "soon".
The Justice Ministry expressed regret over the decision and said it
expected the request for pre-trial release to be granted after the
interviews "in view of the high level of confidence which the
Government has achieved in its relations with the tribunal".
Despite the rejection of the request, the assurances given by the
Government in the case of Markac and Cermak have never been questioned
by the Hague tribunal, the Ministry said in a statement.
Markac and Cermak voluntarily surrendered to the tribunal on March 11
this year. At a session held on April 1 to discuss their request for
provisional release pending trial, the prosecution opposed the
request, citing the possibility of the accused fleeing or exerting
their influence on witnesses, but said they could change their view if
the accused agreed to an additional interview with them while in
custody.
Justice Minister Vesna Skare-Ozbolt then provided verbal assurances
that all the conditions for provisional release would be met,
recalling that the two generals had turned themselves in voluntarily.
Defence attorneys Cedo Prodanovic and Miroslav Separovic have insisted
that all the conditions for the release of their clients have been met
and that the two generals will be ready to appear in court at any
time. They opposed the idea of prosecutors interviewing their clients,
saying that it would strip the accused of the only privilege they had,
notably "to present their defence at the end of the proceedings".
Cermak and Markac are charged on the basis of personal and command
responsibility for crimes committed as part of "a joint criminal
enterprise". They are accused of persecution, killing at least 150
Serbs, plunder and destruction of Serb-owned property, deportation and
forcible resettlement of tens of thousands of people and other
inhumane acts committed during and in the wake of Operation Storm
between August 4 and November 15, 1995.
(Hina) vm