VINKOVCI, April 30 (Hina) - Justice Minister Vesna Skare-Ozbolt said on Friday her ministry had expressed regret over the decision by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague to reject requests by retired Croatian generals Mladen
Markac and Ivan Cermak for provisional release before they were interviewed by prosecutors.
VINKOVCI, April 30 (Hina) - Justice Minister Vesna Skare-Ozbolt said on
Friday her ministry had expressed regret over the decision by the UN
war crimes tribunal in The Hague to reject requests by retired
Croatian generals Mladen Markac and Ivan Cermak for provisional
release before they were interviewed by prosecutors.#L#
"We are doing all that is necessary to refute the unacceptable
allegations in their indictments," Skare-Ozbolt said ahead of an
extraordinary county election convention of her Democratic Centre
party in the eastern town of Vinkovci.
"Good cooperation with the Hague tribunal is one thing, but the
content of the actual indictments is completely another matter," she
added.
The minister said that the assurances that the Croatian Government had
provided regarding the two generals were not brought into question
"even by such a court decision, which is certainly temporary".
As soon as the interviews with the tribunal prosecutor are over, a
request for the provisional release of Markac and Cermak will be filed
again, she said.
"We can expect the interviews to be completed within a month and a
half, after which (the two generals) would return home," Skare-Ozbolt
said.
(Hina) vm