Goran Visnjic, a Croatian actor who appears in American and British films and television productions, on Monday called on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) "not to be led by politics but by facts and justice" when deciding in the appeals proceedings in the case of two Croatian Generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac.
The well-known Croatian actor, who arrived in The Hague today to attend an appeal hearing in this case before the UN tribunals' appeals chamber, said in a statement in the English language that he had come to support the Croatian Army's highly-decorated general who was a commander in Operation Storm in which, Visnjic added, the village of his grandparents had been liberated and for which he was grateful.
Visnjic stated that Gotovina was known among his soldiers as a commander who insisted on the respect for the military code of ethics.
I am familiar with the ICTY noble efforts to try to bring peace to the region. I am here to kindly ask the tribunal not to be led by politics but by facts and justice when considering these appeals, the actor said in a break of today's appeals hearing.
Addressing Croatian reporters in the Croatian language Visnjic said he had arrived in The Hague to support General Gotovina "as I believe that he is unjustly here".
On 15 April 2011, the Trial Chamber sentenced Gotovina to 24 years and Markac to 18 years in prison and acquitted General Ivan Cermak of responsibility for war crimes committed by Croatian forces during and in the wake of Operation Storm which crushed a Serb insurgency in central and southern Croatia in the summer of 1995. The two convicted generals' defence team lodged appeals after that.
