Operation Storm trial to begin in May

Operation Storm trial to begin in May

The trial of three Croatian generals – Ante Gotovina, Ivan Čermak and Mladen Markač – is scheduled to begin on May 7, 2007. The pre-trial chamber made this decision regarding the defense’s motion to schedule the start of the trial "at the earliest in September 2007".

Explaining the decision, the pre-trial judge Bakone Moloto stated that the arguments presented by the defense counsel representing the three generals were "not found convincing".

In early December 2006, the accused generals pleaded not guilty to the four counts in the joint indictment charging them with crimes against Serb civilians in the course of and after Operation Storm in the summer of 1995.

The indictment alleges that more than 150 civilians, ethnic Serbs, were killed in the Krajina region while tens of thousands of them were expelled to Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina.

Among the charges levied at Gotovina, Čermak and Markač is the participation – together with the late Croatian president Tudjman and other Croatian officials - in the "joint criminal undertaking" aimed at forcible and permanent removal of the Serb population from the Krajina region.

According to an earlier estimate by Alan Tieger, the prosecutor in the case, the Storm trial could take between twelve and fourteen months to complete.