Attorney Michael Karnavas, a defence lawyer for wartime Bosnian Croat leader Jadranko Prlic sentenced by the UN tribunal to 25 years for war crimes against Bosnian Muslims, said on Wednesday after the delivery of the verdict by the ICTY trial chamber that the judgement which established the existence of a joint criminal enterprise with the then Croatian President Franjo Tudjman at its helm, was actually an indictment against Croatia.
In the event we fail to overturn the ruling in the appellate proceedings, Croatia might face a lawsuit before the International Court of Justice. This is an indictment against Croatia no matter how much the country wants to distance itself from Franjo Tudjman and Gojko Susak, the lawyer said in The Hague.
Apart from the six Bosnian Croats whom the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Wednesday found guilty of war crimes, "a number of persons joined, participated in and contributed to the JCE (joint criminal enterprise), including among others: Franjo Tudjman, the President of the Republic of Croatia; Gojko Susak, the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Croatia", the ICTY trial chamber said in the summary of the ruling.
The U.S. lawyer criticised Croatia for failing to approach the case seriously.
He said that he expected nothing from Croatia during the appellate proceedings, and in this context he recalled that upon stepping into office, the current Croatian President Ivo Josipovic visited Bosnia and apologised for war crimes, as one of his first steps.
Michael Karnavas described the judgement as shocking.
Shocking, as if the trial chamber did not hear the evidence presented by the defence. The trial chambers seems to have made a ruling upon the presentation of the indictment, he said, and announced an appeal.
