GOTOVINA'S LAWYERS SEEK PRECEDENT FOR ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS

ZAGREB, Oct 20 (Hina) - The defence team of the fugitive general Ante Gotovina on Monday reacted to articles in some media which contested the parliament's decision on the hand-over of documents to people accused by the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal. #L# Gotovina's lawyers say that the precedent for the said decision was the government's move of November 2001 when Zagreb allowed the lawyer of a Bosnian Croat indictee, Pasko Ljubicic, who at that period was also not available to the tribunal, to work on documents stored in Croatian archives. Ljubicic's lawyer Tomislav Jonjic was quoted by the Rijeka-based Novi List as saying that the government let him have access to documents but this was on the grounds of an investigation launched in Croatia without any knowledge of the intentions of the ICTY (tribunal) to accuse Ljubicic of the massacre in the central Bosnian village of Ahmici. Gotovina's lawyer, Luka Misetic, issued a press release refuting Jonjic's statement. According to Misetic, an indictment issued by the ICTY against Ljubicic was confirmed on 26 September 2000, and the relevant decision of the government's council for cooperation with the ICTY is dated 16 November 2000, after the issuing of the indictment. According to data released by the tribunal, the Ljubicic indictment was confirmed on said date, but the document was sealed, i.e. secret, and the indictment was unsealed on 30 October 2001, but these data have not been mentioned by Gotovina's lawyers. The Croatian government's experts in charge of cooperation with the ICTY say the cited example cannot have the character of legal precedent, as access to documents pertaining to the Ljubicic case was allowed after an investigation had been launched before a Croatian court, independently of the ICTY. (hina) ms sb