DIRECTOR of the “Veritas” Documentation and Information Center Savo Štrbac told Srna that he would like someone to appear at tomorrow’s preliminary hearing against the four Croatian military pilots in the “Petrovačka Road” case, but that it is unlikely, because Croatia will not cooperate.
Štrbac, who himself was a long-time criminal judge and lawyer, said that Croatia does not recognize trials in Serbia against their “defenders” and citizens, which he believes is a mistake.
He pointed out that “Veritas” collected evidence of that crime, the names of the dead, wounded, and their families and shared it with the prosecution, and that the Croatian state should have allowed the accused pilots to defend themselves, and it cannot do so by ignoring the existence of that procedure. .
– What happened on “Petrovačka cesta” is not politics, it is a fact. Those of us who passed through and were there know that they are not imaginary victims, that it really happened and that children, people and civilians died there, and someone must be held accountable for that – said Štrbac.
But, he added, the defense attorneys are from Serbia, all ex officio, because no action can be carried out, in the criminal-legal sense, without the presence of a defense attorney, since war crime is the most serious crime.
The court sent the invitations, which go through the diplomatic channel, through the Ministry of Justice, so it is sent to Croatia, whose Ministry of Justice has publicly decided not to serve them, because, as Štrbac reminds, they do not recognize anything that comes from Serbia in connection with war crimes against their holdings.
– Although the state /Croatia/ has not officially served them with a summons, they know from the media that tomorrow is the preparatory hearing and they can appear. And God forbid that anyone appears – said Strbac.
In Belgrade, the preliminary hearing in the process known as “Petrovačka cesta” should begin tomorrow against four officers of the Croatian Air Force for crimes in the military-police operation “Storm” in 1995 against a column of Serbian civilians fleeing the Republic of Serbian Krajina.
The trial is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. in the Special Court building in front of the Special Department for War Crimes.
The indictment against the Croatian Air Force officers Vladimir Mikac, Zdenko Radulj, Željko Jelenić and Danijel Borović accuses them of ordering the rocket attack on a convoy of Serbian refugees on Petrovac road near Bosanski Petrovac during Operation “Storm” on August 7 and 8, 1995. Svodna in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In the bombardment of the Croatian aviation in the refugee column, ten people were killed / among them four children, a twenty-year-old girl and an eighty-three-year-old old woman, and several dozen people were seriously and lightly wounded.
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