Hague: Gotovina defense team "on strike"

Ante Gotovina’s defense team will go on strike because Croatian police searched the apartments of the former high officers of the Croatian Army.

Izvor: Beta

Thursday, 10.12.2009.

14:58

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Ante Gotovina’s defense team will go on strike because Croatian police searched the apartments of the former high officers of the Croatian Army. Gotovina, a former Croatian general himself, and two others, are standing trial at the Hague for war crimes committed against the country's ethnic Serbs during and after the 1995 military onslaught against them, known as "Operation Storm". Hague: Gotovina defense team "on strike" The defense lawyers think that the Hague Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz is "behind yesterday’s police action the goal of which was to find the so-called artillery logs", and therefore are asking the trial chamber to "take concrete legal measures against him". The Hague prosecution has been requesting the logs from Croatia since 2007, believing that they would prove to be key in their case against the three former generals. The logs would allegedly prove that the Serb areas in Krajina were subjected to excessive shelling. According to Gotovina’s lawyer Luka Misetic, the defense will end their strike "only if the tribunal’s competent chamber gives them guarantees that "certain measures will be taken against Croatia for the rough violation of Gotovina’s rights". Otherwise, the lawyer said, the team would no longer participate in the trial. Croatian police yesterday morning searched the apartments of several persons from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina as a part of the search for the artillery logs. They included the apartments of retired general and former Hague indictee Rahim Ademi, Gotovina’s associates and member of his defense team Zeljko Kucic and Marin Ivanovic, and former chief of General Petar Stipetic’s cabinet, Miroslav Vidovic. The documentation found in the search are now being "checked for credibility", said reports from Zagreb. Some media claim that the papers found are from the 1995 operation, but it remains unclear whether the recovered documents are in fact the missing artillery logs. Brammertz’s report about Croatia's cooperation with the Hague Tribunal depends on these logs, because some members of the EU do not wish to allow Croatia to start the judiciary and fundamental rights chapter negotiations, unless the logs have been given to the prosecution.

Hague: Gotovina defense team "on strike"

The defense lawyers think that the Hague Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz is "behind yesterday’s police action the goal of which was to find the so-called artillery logs", and therefore are asking the trial chamber to "take concrete legal measures against him".

The Hague prosecution has been requesting the logs from Croatia since 2007, believing that they would prove to be key in their case against the three former generals. The logs would allegedly prove that the Serb areas in Krajina were subjected to excessive shelling.

According to Gotovina’s lawyer Luka Mišetić, the defense will end their strike "only if the tribunal’s competent chamber gives them guarantees that "certain measures will be taken against Croatia for the rough violation of Gotovina’s rights".

Otherwise, the lawyer said, the team would no longer participate in the trial.

Croatian police yesterday morning searched the apartments of several persons from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina as a part of the search for the artillery logs.

They included the apartments of retired general and former Hague indictee Rahim Ademi, Gotovina’s associates and member of his defense team Željko Kučić and Marin Ivanović, and former chief of General Petar Stipetić’s cabinet, Miroslav Vidović.

The documentation found in the search are now being "checked for credibility", said reports from Zagreb.

Some media claim that the papers found are from the 1995 operation, but it remains unclear whether the recovered documents are in fact the missing artillery logs.

Brammertz’s report about Croatia's cooperation with the Hague Tribunal depends on these logs, because some members of the EU do not wish to allow Croatia to start the judiciary and fundamental rights chapter negotiations, unless the logs have been given to the prosecution.

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