An attorney for Croatian army general Ante Gotovina, who is on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, said in The Hague on Thursday that he had correctly conveyed the general's message calling on Croatian citizens to vote in favour of the country's accession to the EU in the January 22 referendum.
"I can say that Gotovina told me so, saying that I should make it public, and this was confirmed by his best friend Zeljko Dilber. In all these years I have never conveyed any statement by Gotovina that was not true," attorney Luka Misetic said.
The day before Croatia's EU entry vote, Gotovina called through his attorneys on Croatians to vote for the country's EU accession.
Gotovina called on them to go to the polls and vote according to their conscience. He said he would vote for Croatia's accession to the EU, where he said it belonged in terms of civilisation and history, which the referendum would formally confirm.
Croatia's place is in the EU, Gotovina said through his lawyers.
He was sentenced on April 15 to 24 years' imprisonment pending appeal for crimes committed against Serb civilians during and after Operation Storm in 1995.
