Civic Committee for Human Rights
Documenta - Centre for Dealing with the Past
Centre for Peace, Nonviolence and Human Rights, Osijek
Monitoring team:
Veselinka Kastratović
Mladen Stojanović
Vlatka Kuić
Jelena Đokić Jović
Maja Kovačević Bošković
Marko Sjekavica
Martina Franičević
Tanja Vukov
Tino Bego
Robert Adrić
Ljiljana Bračun
On behalf of the organisations:
Katarina Kruhonja, Centre for Peace, Nonviolence and Human Rights, Osijek
Vesna Teršelič, Documenta
Zoran Pusić, Civic Committee for Human Rights
SURVEY OF COURT PROCEEDINGS THAT WE HAVE MONITORED
a) Hearings at county courts in the Republic of Croatia which we have monitored
In January and February 2009, monitors of the monitoring team of the Centre for Peace, Nonviolence and Human Rights - Osijek, the Documenta, and the Civic Committee for Human Rights - Zagreb were present at 48 court hearings[1] of 11 crime cases (trials) and the monitors made reports on each hearing.
The hearings were held at 7 county courts: in Šibenik (trial against accused Sreten Peslać for crime in Ervenik), Zagreb (trials against accused Branimir Glavaš et al for crime in Osijek), Požega (trial against accused Damir Kufnera et al for crime in Marino Selo), Vukovar (trial against accused Slobodan Raič for crime at Drvena pijaca in Vukovar; trial against accused Dušan Zinajić for crime in Borovo Naselje; trial against accused Jugoslav Mišljenović et al for crime in Mikluševci; trial against accused Bogdan Kuzmić for crime at Vukovar hospital; and trial against accused Stanimir Avramović for crime at the Velepromet in Vukovar), Rijeka (trial against accused Zlatko Jušić et al for crime in Velika Kladuša), Sisak (trial against accused Đuro Đurić for crime in Zamlaća, Struga and Kozibrod) and in Karlovac (trial against accused Nenad Pejnović for crime in Vrhovine).
The main hearing in the proceedings against accused Vlado Gatarić (crime in Vukovje, Koreničani and Dobra Kuća) was scheduled to take place at the Bjelovar County Court on January 26th, 2009 but was adjourned due to non-appearance of the accused. However, on the same day, four witnesses[2] were heard outside the trial.
In four proceedings which are currently in the main hearing stage, not a single hearing was held during the reporting period (January-February 2009), therefore, the main hearings in those trials will have to start all over again[3] due to adjournments which lasted longer than two months.
b) Public sessions at the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia
Members of the monitoring team also attended four public sessions at the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia, however, we still do not have any information about the decisions of the Supreme Court on these cases.
We have monitored the following public sessions:
- case of accused Janko Banović and Zoran Obradović (crime in Petrinja II), who were sentenced in June 2008 to a five-year prison sentence each, at the repeated trial held at the Sisak County Court. Accused Banović is not available to the Croatian judiciary and is being tried in absence, while accused Obradović is being kept in custody;
- case of accused Vlastimir Denčić and Zoran Kecman (crime in Dalj II), in which the Osijek County Court, in November 2007, found accused Denčić guilty and sentenced him to a 4,5-year prison term, while accused Kecman was acquitted of all charges. The accused were not kept in custody;
- case of accused Jovan Petković (crime in Stara Gradiška detention camp)[4], who was acquitted of all charges at the reinstituted trial at the Slavonski Brod County Court. Accused Petković had been charged with the war crime against prisoners of war stated in Article 122 of the Basic Penal Law of the Republic of Croatia[5];
- case of accused Nikola Cvjetićanin (crime in the village of Smoljanac), who was acquitted of all charges in January 2008 at the repeated trial at the Gospić County Court. Accused Cvjetićanin had been charged with the crime stated in Article 120, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Penal Law of the Republic of Croatia.
We did not monitor the public session at the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia in case of accused Rade Ivković and Dušan Ivković, who had been charged with the crime stated in Article 120, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Penal Law of the Republic of Croatia.[6]
PROCEEDINGS WHICH HAVE ENDED WITH THE FIRST-INSTANCE COURT VERDICTS (DURING THE REPORTING PERIOD)
In January and February 2009, five trials were completed and resulted in the first-instance court verdicts (three trials at the Vukovar County Court, one trial at the Šibenik County Court, and one trial at the Sisak County Court).
1. Trial against accused Milovan Ždrnja (crime in Sremska Mitrovica)[7], after the Vukovar County Attorney's Office dropped charges against Ždrnja, the Vukovar County Court on January 23rd, 2009 brought the decision based on Article 291, Paragraph 1, Item 1 of the Penal Procedure Act on abatement of action against the accused for war crime against civilians described in Article 120, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Penal Law of the Republic of Croatia.
The court informed the wife and children of the injured party Ivica Pavić about the possibility of continuance of the criminal prosecution, since the injured party Ivica Pavić deceased during the course of trial.
2. Trial against accused Jugoslav Mišljenović et al. (crime in Mikluševci), on February 5th, 2009 the Court Panel (War Crime Council) of the Vukovar County Court announced the verdict No: K-7/01, dated on February 2nd, 2009, which acquitted the accused Zlatan Nikolić and the accused Darko Hudak of charges for genocide described in Article 119 of the Basic Penal Law of the Republic of Croatia.
By the same verdict, all other accused persons who were listed in the indictment were found guilty - of criminal act of war crime against civilians described in Article 120, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Penal Law of the Republic of Croatia[8], and not the genocide - and sentenced to prison terms as follows: Jugoslav Mišljenović - 6 years, Milan Stanković - 6 years, Dušan Stanković - 6 years, Petar Lenđer - 15 years, Zdravko Simić - 4 years, Joakim Bučko - 4 years, Mirko Ždinjak - 6 years, Dragan Ćirić - 6 years, Zdenko Magoč - 4.5 years, Jovan Cico - 15 years, Đuro Krošnjar - 6 years, and Janko Ljikar - 4.5 years.
The accused Joakim Bučko, Zdenko Magoč and Darko Hudak were present at the announcement of the verdict. Other accused persons are not available to the Croatian judiciary and they were tried in absence.[9]
3. Repeated trial against accused Slobodan Raič (crime at the Drvena pijaca in Vukovar) - after one single court hearing and after the Vukovar County Attorney's Office modified the indictment, the War Crime Council of the Vukovar County Court, on January 22nd, 2009, found the accused Raič guilty for unlawful capture (dismissing the initial charges of omission to provide medical help to the injured person) and sentenced Raič to 2.5 years of imprisonment (the prison sentence identical to the one pronounced at the first trial).[10]
At the repeated trial, the accused was not kept in custody. He had been kept in custody in the period from May 6th, 2006 until the public session at the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia on October 30th, 2008 i.e. almost 2.5 years, which equals the duration of sentence passed on him by the War Crime Council of the Vukovar County Court at both first-instance court proceedings.
4. Trial against accused Đuro Đurić (crime in Zamlaća, Struga and Kozibrod) who was charged with war crime against civilians described in Article 120, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Penal Law of the Republic of Croatia. Main hearing was held at the Sisak County Court in February 2009. Actual hearings took place on February 3rd and February 11th, 2009.[11]
After the change of the factual and legal description and the change of legal qualification of the offence stated in the indictment (legal qualification- war crime- was changed into armed rebellion), on February 11th, 2009 the Court Council issued the verdict on suspension of indictment.
5. Repeated trial against accused Sreten Peslać (crime in Ervenik) who had been tried in absence in 1993 and sentenced to a 10-year prison term for war crime against civilians described in Article 120, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Penal Law of the Republic of Croatia. The repeated trial commenced at the Šibenik County Court on December 1st, 2008. Applying the General Amnesty Law, the verdict on suspension of indictment was announced on February 9th, 2009 after the County Attorney's Office had changed the factual and legal description as well as the legal qualification of the offence, changing it from a war crime against civilians into an armed rebellion.
The detention order was cancelled, the accused was released from custody and the arrest warrant was recalled.[12]
The indictment No: KT-27/92 issued by the Šibenik County Prosecutor's Office on October 23rd, 1992 charged 30 persons with war crime against civilians. Eight indictees were charged with the murder of Drago Čengić, and murder of Drago Čengić's wife Nevenka and their sons Slobodan and Goran, who were minors at the time of the crime (mid-January 1992). 22 indictees, among whom was Sreten Peslać, were charged that they, in their capacity as members of paramilitary units of the so-called Krajina region, committed terrorist acts against civilians in the Ervenik area from May 1991 until January 1992, with intention to make the civilians leave the territory of the so-called SAO Krajina, threatened to civilians and insulted them, physically abused them, plundered and destroyed their movable property and burnt their immovable property, unlawfully arrested civilians and took them to detention camps in Knin where the civilians were exposed to physical and psychical abuse, which caused many villagers to leave the area.
TRIALS WHICH COMMENCED DURING THE REPORTING PERIOD
Main hearings at five trials (five criminal cases) commenced in January and February 2009, and two trials (out of those five) have ended in the same period.[13]
Here is a short information on other three pending trials:
1. Trial against accused Dušan Zinajić (crime in Borovo Naselje) commenced at the Vukovar County Court on January 21st, 2009. The indictment No: K-DO-5/06 issued by the Vukovar County Attorney's Office on December 29th, 2006 charged Zinajić with war crime against civilians described in Article 120, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Penal Law of the Republic of Croatia.
The accusations against Zinajić state that he, in his capacity as member of Serb paramilitary unit, after the occupation of Borovo Naselje, in Vukovar, on November 20th, 1991, approached the civilian Tomislav Kovačić (who was among the men ordered to lie down on the ground), opened fire from his rifle in the direction of Tomislav Kovačić's head, and at that very moment an unidentified JNA soldier pulled Zinajić's arm so that the rifle bullet scratched the back of Kovačić's head causing him heavy bleeding which was stopped by an unidentified person who provided him medical help. The above stated actions of the accused person qualify as inhumane treatment of civilians at the time of occupation.
The accused person is not kept in custody.
According to the latest information, main hearing is supposed to continue on March 2nd, 2009.
2. The third trial (twice repeated trial) against accused Stanimir Avramović (crime at the Velepromet in Vukovar) for war crime against civilians described in Article 120, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Penal Law of the Republic of Croatia commenced at the Vukovar County Court on February 12th, 2009.
The accused is being tried in absence.
Stevan Curnić appeared as witness and was heard at the court hearing held on February 12th, 2009. Curnić is currently serving the prison sentence following the legally valid verdict brought in the same criminal case.[14]
3. Trial against accused Nenad Pejnović (crime in Vrhovine) for war crime against civilians described in Article 120, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Penal Law of the Republic of Croatia commenced at the Karlovac County Court on February 24th, 2009.[15]
Court hearings were held on February 24th, 25th and 26th, 2009. The accused is being kept in custody since February 10th, 2008.
OTHER MONITORED TRIALS
1. Trial against accused Branimir Glavaš et al. (crime in Osijek) held at the Zagreb County Court - court hearings were held very frequently during the reporting period (22 court hearings were held).
The trial is in the phase of presentation of material evidence and hearing of witnesses and court experts.
At the court hearing held at the end of February 2009, the Court Council rejected further requests for evidence submitted by the prosecution and the defence explaining that the presentation of proposed evidence would not result in better clarification of facts.
When the trial continues, the parties may submit new requests for evidence. It may be expected that the defence pleas will be presented some time soon, as well as the closing statements.
On several occasions during this trial, we have observed incidents of publication of secret witnesses' depositions, and we have acted accordingly by recording it during this reporting period:
- on January 13th, 2009, a part of the deposition given by a secret witness using a pseudonym "protected witness 06" was published in the "Glas Slavonije" local newspapers in the article "Glavaš was not in charge of the Protection military company", signed by journalist Dražen Boroš;
- on February 4th, 2009, a part of the deposition given by secret witness under a pseudonym "Drava" was published in the "Glas Slavonije" in the interpretation of the secret deposition given by Radan Kovač, defence lawyer for the fifth-accused Dino Kontić.
2. Trial against accused Damir Kufner et al. (crime in Marino Selo) held at the Požega County Court - 11 court hearings and one out-of-trial hearing[16] were held during the reporting period.
The trial is in the phase of presentation of material evidence and hearing of witnesses and court experts.
On February 17th, 2009, detention order was cancelled for the second-accused Davor Šimić. Defendant Šimić and the third-accused Pavao Vancaš, whose detention order was cancelled on December 22nd, 2008, are not being kept in custody while other defendants (Damir Kufner, Tomica Poletto, Željko Tutić and Antun Ivezić) are currently in custody.
3. Trial held at the Rijeka County Court against accused Zlatko Jušić and Ibrahim Jušić (crime in Velika Kladuša) who were charged with war crime against civilians while holding high positions in the so-called Autonomous region of Western Bosnia. Two court hearings were held during the reporting period.
Accused Zlatko Jušić was released from custody in December 2008, while accused Ibrahim Jušić is being kept in custody.
4. Trial in absentia held at the Vukovar County Court against accused Bogdan Kuzmić (crime at the Vukovar hospital), who was charged with war crime against civilians (indictment states that, after the occupation of Vukovar, Kuzmić singled five civilians out of the Vukovar hospital and took them in an unknown direction, who were killed in (still) unknown circumstances.
One court hearing was held during the reporting period. The next court hearing has not been scheduled yet but it will be scheduled and the parties will be informed about it in a written form.
OBSERVATIONS
On several occasions during the reporting period, at the trial held at the Zagreb County Court against accused Branimir Glavaš et al. (crime in Osijek), we have observed the incidents of publication of secret witnesses' depositions (please see more details in the text under the headline "Other monitored trials").
In our opinion, not only that the decision by the War Crime Council of the Zagreb County Court was violated in the mentioned cases but also a total disrespect was shown for the court, since the publishing or paraphrasing of a part or the entire secret deposition makes the deposition available to the public, the Council's decision is ignored, self-will and disrespect is shown for the positive regulations of the Republic of Croatia which serve as the basis for the Council's decision on exclusion of the public from the hearing. All mentioned actions indirectly influence the particular witness as well as the witnesses who are about to give their depositions.[17]
Furthermore, the Požega County Court, where the trial is currently held against accused Damir Kufner and other five accused persons (members of Croatian military units) for war crime in Marino Selo, does not meet the minimum standards required for the court premises and technical equipment in the courtroom.
Namely, there is no separate place in a courtroom which would serve as a witness stand, instead, witnesses give their testimonies from the audience. Already at the beginning of the main hearing (October 2008), some witnesses expressed their fear, and one witness even stated that she did not wish to testify due to fear.
Furthermore, the court does not possess the equipment for picture and sound transmission, which is the reason for holding court hearings and taking witness testimonies via video link at the Osijek County Court.
In this reporting period, we have recorded an increased number of changes of legal qualifications of criminal offences into a criminal act of armed rebellion, and cancellations of criminal proceedings after the prosecutions dropped charges against the accused (two verdicts of suspension of indictment after the prosecution made the change to the legal qualification into the criminal act of armed rebellion[18]; one case of cancellation of criminal proceedings against 12 accused persons after the prosecution made the change to the legal qualification of the criminal offence stated in the indictment into the criminal act of armed rebellion[19]; and three cases (which included 8 indictees) of cancellations of criminal proceedings after the prosecution dropped charges[20]).
Concerning the fact that the majority of mentioned changes of legal qualifications of criminal offences stated in indictments and the majority of cancellations of criminal prosecution have been done in the indictments issued by the Vukovar County Attorney's Office, it is evident that the Vukovar County Attorney's Office is currently in the process of revision of indictments.
[1] Centre for Peace, Nonviolence and Human Rights monitors did not attend the court hearings held on January 15th and 16th at the Požega County Court trial against accused Damir Kufner et al (for crime in Marino Selo) due to icy rain and icebound roads. Daily reports on these hearings, and all other hearings attended by monitors of the Centre for Peace, Nonviolence and Human Rights; the Documenta; and the Civic Committee for Human Rights are available, in Croatian language, at www.centar-za-mir.hr
[2] In 1995, at the Bjelovar County Court, the accused was acquitted of the charges that he, as a member of the Serb military units, had committed a criminal act of war crime against civilians stated in Article 120, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Penal Law of the Republic of Croatia. In 1996, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia quashed the first-instance court verdict and reversed the case for retrial. The accused lives in the vicinity of Banja Luka (BiH). In a written memo dated on January 15th, 2009, the accused informed the court of his intention not to attend the court hearing scheduled to take place on January 26th. In a telephone conversation held with his defence lawyer on January 25th, 2009, the accused stated that he would appear at the court next time the hearings were scheduled but not at the hearing scheduled for January 26th.
[3] At the trial held at the Osijek County Court against accused Željko Čizmić for crime in Dalj (the accused is not being kept in custody) and at the trial held at the Rijeka County Court against accused Radoslav Čubrilo et al (in absentia trial) for crime in Lovinac, the last hearings were scheduled and held at the end of 2007. We do not have the information about the reason for such a long pause between the hearings.
At the trial held at the Vukovar County Court against accused Ljuban Devetak et al for crime in Lovas, the last hearing was held in March 2008, while two hearings were held outside the trial in May 2008. The total of 16 accused persons are being tried and only two of them are available to the Croatian judiciary and present at the trial (accused Ilija Vorkapić is not kept in custody, while accused Milan Tepavac is kept in custody since April 2007 when he was arrested - according to the latest information, his detention order was cancelled, however, we do not have the decision on cancellation of detention order).
The repeated trial held at the Šibenik County Court against accused Milan Atlija and Đorđe Jaramaz for crime at the Corridor (BiH), Potkonj, Vrpolje and Knin, commenced on December 2nd, 2008. The next hearings are scheduled to take place on March 3rd and March 4th, 2009. The accused have been kept in custody since September 2006.
[4] We did not monitor this trial at the Slavonski Brod County Court; we monitored only the public session at the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia.
[5] Previously, in 1995, Jovan Petković was accused that he, as a guard in Stara Gradiška detention camp, had physically, psychically and sexually abused the detainee Nevenka Preradović. The trial at the Požega County Court was held in absence of the accused. The accused was sentenced to a 12-year prison term. After Petković's arrest in 2005 following the international arrest warrant, a reinstituted trial was held at the Slavonski Brod County Court, since the Požega County Court declared that the case was not in its local jurisdiction.
[6] The first-instance court proceedings were held at the Vukovar County Court. The accused were charged with war crime against civilians described in Article 120, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Penal Law of the Republic of Croatia, including the criminal action of rape. The accused Rade Ivković was tried in absence, while accused Dušan Ivković was present at the trial and was not kept in custody. Rade Ivković was found guilty and sentenced to 3.5 years of imprisonment, while Dušan Ivković was acquitted of all charges. The public was excluded from the main hearing.
[7] Previously, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia upheld the defendant's appeal and quashed the first-instance court verdict dated on December 31st, 2004 (which had found the accused Ždrnja guilty and sentenced him to 3.5 years of imprisonment) and reversed the case for retrial (to be done before the changed court council). The Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia instructed that all evidence had to be carefully and thoroughly checked at the repeated trial and that it had to be verified if there was any evidence showing that the accused had been in the Sremska Mitrovica prison on the night of November 19th/20th, 1991 and whether Ždrnja did commit the incriminatory acts against the injured party and, if the court was to establish that the accused did strike a one blow on back of the injured person's head using a truncheon, which made the injured person slip out of consciousness; in addition, it had to be determined whether such an act of torture against a civilian did present an inhumane treatment of the civilian, and if such an action did cause great suffering to the injured person, which all presented important characteristics of the criminal act the accused person had been charged with, or it could possibly present some other criminal act.
The repeated trial commenced in June 2008. The defendant was present at the trial and was not kept in custody.
[8] According to the indictment, all indictees were charged with criminal act of genocide, which is described in Article 119 of the Basic Penal Law of the Republic of Croatia.
[9] Criminal proceedings for war crime in Mikluševci were carried out since 1996. The proceedings were initiated in Osijek. After completion of the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube region, the case was taken up by the Vukovar County Attorney's Office while the court procedure was transferred to the Vukovar County Court.
It is our opinion that the investigation in this case was impeded - either by objective circumstances such as the relocation of the Vukovar County Attorney's Office during the armed conflict, or the displacement of population during the conflict - which all became clearly visible later on, during the court proceedings. Namely, we have recorded seven modifications to the indictment during the court proceedings (main hearing). In year 2007, even the legal qualification of the offence was changed (from criminal act of genocide into a criminal act of war crime against civilians, and then back to a criminal act of genocide).
The initial indictment issued by the Osijek County Attorney's Office had included the total of 35 indictees. During the trial, criminal proceedings against 10 indictees were cancelled due to death of the indictees.
In 2008, the Vukovar County Attorney's Office dropped charges against six indictees; in January 2009 it dropped charges against another five indictees, which makes the total of 14 indicted persons; only three indictees out of 14 were present at the trial while the rest were tried in absence. Those present at the trial were not kept in custody.
[10] Previously, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia on October 30th, 2008 quashed the verdict issued by the Vukovar County Court which had found accused Slobodan Raič guilty of unlawful capture of a civilian and failure to provide medical help, and therefore, convicted Raič for the offence of war crime against civilians and sentenced him to 2.5 years of imprisonment. The quashing decision made by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia states that the first-instance court finding relating to the inhumane treatment of the injured person by omitting to provide medical help to the injured person is based on incorrectly established facts.
[11] According to the words by the defence lawyer, the court proceedings against defendant Đurić have been separated from other indictees listed in the indictment since the majority of them are not available to the Croatian judiciary. Some of them have already been tried at separate trials, and only the 10th-accused Dragan Vranešević has been convicted so far and sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment. Allegedly, the accused Tošo Sundać, Slavko Tadić, Goran Barač, Dušan Badić, Dalibor Borota and Rade Lukač have deceased or were killed. However, since no official documents were issued by relevant institutions to confirm the mentioned, the proceedings against the above stated persons still have not been abated.
Accused Đuro Đurić was tried in 2001. At that time, Đurić was kept in custody. However, when the detention order was cancelled and he was released from custody, Đurić stopped obeying court summonses. After an order for his detention was reissued and the arrest warrant was issued, Đurić voluntarily surrendered.
[12] On February 18th, 2008, Sreten Peslać was arrested in Verona, Italy, during his check-in with the police regarding his documents. On that occasion, a police official informed Peslać that an international arrest warrant had been issued against him. He was ordered detention. After he was served the indictment, Peslać read it and decided to submit the request for his extradition to Croatia.
[13] Trial against accused Slobodan Raič held at the Vukovar County Court ended with the first-instance court verdict of guilty (which needs to be decided upon by the Supreme Court); and the trial at the Sisak County Court held against accused Đuro Đurić ended with the verdict on suspension of indictment.
[14] In 1996, the Osijek County Attorney's Office issued indictment against Radivoje Jakovljević et al. (the total of 23 indictees) for crimes of genocide and war crime against civilians, and, in 1998, it issued indictment against Stevan Curnić and Damir Sireta.
The Vukovar County Attorney's Office has taken up both indictments and in 1999 issued the indictment against Stevan Curnić et al. (the total of 22 indictees) for the stated offences.
The Vukovar County Court announced the verdict in May 2000.
The Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia partially upheld the State Attorney's appeal and quashed the verdict i.e. the part of verdict relating to the accused Zoran Stanković, accused Stanko Vujanović, accused Darko Fot, accused Marko Crevar, accused Stanimir Avramović and accused Marko Kraguljac and reversed that particular part of the case for a retrial.
After this, the Vukovar County Attorney's Office indicted the above mentioned persons for war crime described in Article 120, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Penal Law of the Republic of Croatia.
In 2003, the Vukovar County Court found the accused guilty and sentenced them to imprisonment, as follows: Stanko Vujanović (5 years), Darko Fot (5 years), Marko Kraguljac (8 years), Marko Crevar (3 years) and Zoran Stanković (8 years).
The accused Stanimir Avramović was acquitted of all charges.
In 2007, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia upheld the appeals lodged by Stanko Vujanović and Marko Crevar, as well as the appeal submitted by the Vukovar County Attorney's Office (relating to the accused Stanimir Avramović), and reversed the case (the parts relating to the mentioned persons) for a retrial.
After the Vukovar County Attorney's Office, in a memo dated on December 1st, 2008, dropped charges against accused Stanko Vujanović and Marko Crevar due to a lack of evidence, the court proceedings against the two mentioned persons were cancelled by the Vukovar County Court's decision issued on January 29th, 2009 in accordance with Article 291, Paragraph 1, Item 1 of the Penal Procedure Act.
[15] The accusations against Pejnović state that he, as a member of the so-called „SAO Krajina" police, together with other members of Serb paramilitary formations, in the village of Vrhovine, in Ćorci hamlet, on October 4th, 1991, unlawfully arrested the villagers of Croat ethnicity - Martin Čorak, Mato Čorak, Kata Čorak, Stjepan Čorak, Vladimir Čorak and Slavko Čorak, took them to the Vrhovine Police Station, and the following day took them to Ćurinke - Oštri Vršak area, where they killed them.
[16] Out-of-trial hearing of witness via video link. Considering a fact that the Požega County Court does not possess the video link equipment for witness hearing, the out-of-trial hearing was held at the premises of the Osijek County Court. The witness heard via video link was located at the Belgrade District Court.
[17] On that occasion, press conferences were held at the Human Rights Centre in Zagreb (speakers: Vesna Teršelič and Zoran Pusić) and at the Centre for Peace, Nonviolence and Human Rights in Osijek (speaker: Katarina Kruhonja) on February 12th, 2009.
[18] At trial held at the Sisak County Court against accused Đuro Đurić (crime in Zamlaća, Struga and Kozibrod) and at trial held at the Šibenik County Court against accused Sreten Peslać (crime in Ervenik).
[19] In case of the crime in Berak, indictment No: K-DO-42/01 was issued by the Vukovar County Attorney's Office on April 5th, 2006, against 35 persons. However, 16 persons (out of those 35) were not charged with any concrete criminal offences whatsoever i.e. the factual description of the mentioned indictment did not contain any concrete charges against them. The proceedings were separated in case of four indictees who were present at the trial. During the course of the main hearing, the proceedings were also separated in case of accused Mirko Vujić due to his illness and inability to attend the trial, and the Vukovar County Attorney's Office dropped charges against accused Slobodan Vučetić and accused Petar Gunj. In December 2007, the first-instance court verdict found accused Stevan Perić guilty and sentenced him to 4 years of imprisonment, however, in November 2008, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia partially upheld the defendant's appeal and sentenced Perić to 3.5 years of imprisonment.
After the Vukovar County Attorney's Office modified the indictment so that it charged 12 accused persons (Dragan Eror, Đuro Krošnjar, Stevan Vučetić, Milan Knežević, Milosav Jovanović, Ranko Mirilović, Žarko Kajganić, Željko Eror, Nikola Eror, Stevan Gledić, Mile Krošnjar and Dragan Tepšić) with criminal offence of armed rebellion, the Court cancelled criminal proceedings against these 12 persons, in accordance with the General Amnesty Law, by the decision issued on February 20th, 2009. The indictment was made more precise in case of other 19 indictees and they are still charged with criminal act of war crime against civilians described in Article 120, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Penal Law of the Republic of Croatia.
[20] At the Vukovar County Court in January 2009, criminal proceedings against the following accused persons were cancelled: Milovan Ždrnja (crime in Sremska Mitrovica); Milan Bojanić, Jaroslav Mudri, Nikola Vlajnić, Čedo Stanković and Saša Hudak (crime in Mikluševci); and Stanko Vujanović and Marko Crevar (crime at the Velepromet in Vukovar).
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