BELGRADE'S FABRICATED INDICTMENT: Trial of pilots from 'Operation Storm' to begin

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The trial of four Croatian Air Force officers, accused in Serbia of crimes committed during the "Operation Storm" in August 1995, is scheduled to begin on December 26th, the lawyer of one of the accused, Aleksandar Olenik, stated on Wednesday.

The Special Department for War Crimes of the Higher Court in Belgrade made this decision after the preliminary hearing.

Croatia does not recognize the jurisdiction of the Serbian judiciary in this case, and top Croatian officials have repeatedly stated their assessment that this is a provocation and a politically fabricated indictment, and that Croatia will do everything to protect the pilots.

The Croatian officers are not available to the Serbian judicial authorities, and whether they will be tried in absentia will be decided by the criminal pre-trial chamber of that court by the date set for the start of the trial, lawyer Olenik told the Tanjug agency. The preliminary hearing was closed to the public.

The authorized representative of the injured parties, Dušan Bratić, told Tanjug that at today's preliminary hearing, the court acted in accordance with the provisions of the Geneva Convention, which stipulates that all signatory states are obliged to prosecute perpetrators of grave breaches of international humanitarian law.

Bratić said that Serbia has shown that it has its own prosecution and its own court, and that there are people in these institutions who have moral integrity, as they dared to act according to the law and prosecute regardless of the tremendous pressure from Croatia, Tanjug reports. At the preliminary hearing, the indictment was read and evidence was proposed.

The indictment was confirmed against four members of the Croatian Air Force: Vladimir Mikac (67), Zdenko Radulj (69), Željko Jenić (69), and Danijel Borović (64).

They are accused of war crimes against the civilian population as co-perpetrators because, according to the indictment, they ordered air strikes on the civilian population, resulting in the deaths and injuries of several civilians who were leaving the territory of Croatia.

Following these attacks, 13 victims have been identified so far, including four children, and 24 people were injured.

The prosecution emphasized the importance of this case and proposed that the accused be tried in absentia, even though they are not available to the Serbian judicial authorities.

The indictment states that the passage of time gives "sufficient reason to doubt that Croatia or Bosnia and Herzegovina will initiate criminal proceedings against those responsible".

The process of the Serbian judiciary against the four Croatian pilots accused of attacking Serbian civilians in 1995 is a "non-existent process" and a "farce" for Croatia, and if they are convicted, "that verdict does not exist for them," Prime Minister Andrej Plenković stated on Friday in October.

For Zagreb, "that process does not exist," he said.