Defendants maintain innocence in altered Medak indictment

Croatian Generals Rahim Ademi and Mirko Norac have pleaded not guilty to new lesser charges for the Medak Pocket war crimes.

Izvor: Tanjug

Wednesday, 21.05.2008.

10:22

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Croatian Generals Rahim Ademi and Mirko Norac have pleaded not guilty to new lesser charges for the Medak Pocket war crimes. In the altered indictment, changed almost a year into the trial and following the questioning of hundreds of witnesses, Ademi is no longer referred to as military commander for the Gospic region, meaning that he had less command responsibility for the perpetrated acts. Defendants maintain innocence in altered Medak indictment The qualification of excessive and unselective artillery shelling of Serb villages in the Medak Pocket region has been changed, and the shelling is now defined as “random.” Some of the victims in the indictment are no longer mentioned as having been tortured, but the indictment still states that they were murdered. From the testimony of many Serb civilians during the trial, the number of destroyed homes in the village of Divoselo in the indictment was confirmed at 40, while earlier it was said to be an unconfirmed number of homes. The changes to the indictment were a result of witness testimony. Ademi and Norac are accused of violating international conventions for the protection of civilians, as well as wartime human rights related to prisoners-of-war, the wounded and sick, civilians, their properties and the spoils of war. According to the indictment, the two generals did not inform their units of their obligations regarding international war and humanitarian conventions, did not provide enough military police, and did not do anything to stop war crimes that were committed during the Croatian army’s withdrawal from the occupied region, or punish those responsible for crimes.

Defendants maintain innocence in altered Medak indictment

The qualification of excessive and unselective artillery shelling of Serb villages in the Medak Pocket region has been changed, and the shelling is now defined as “random.”

Some of the victims in the indictment are no longer mentioned as having been tortured, but the indictment still states that they were murdered.

From the testimony of many Serb civilians during the trial, the number of destroyed homes in the village of Divoselo in the indictment was confirmed at 40, while earlier it was said to be an unconfirmed number of homes.

The changes to the indictment were a result of witness testimony.

Ademi and Norac are accused of violating international conventions for the protection of civilians, as well as wartime human rights related to prisoners-of-war, the wounded and sick, civilians, their properties and the spoils of war.

According to the indictment, the two generals did not inform their units of their obligations regarding international war and humanitarian conventions, did not provide enough military police, and did not do anything to stop war crimes that were committed during the Croatian army’s withdrawal from the occupied region, or punish those responsible for crimes.

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