The defence teams for Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) said on Tuesday that the opinion of retired US General Walter Huffman on the untenable charge of excessive shelling of Knin corresponded to their positions which they had elaborated during the trial of the two generals in The Hague.
Commenting on General Huffman's article in the spring volume of the Military Law Review, in which the author reviewed the ICTY Trial Chamber's judgement against the two generals, Markac's lawyer Goran Mikulicic said after today's status conference in The Hague that "it is a very good article" and in line with the positions presented by General Gotovina's defence team in the course of the trial.
Asked by reporters whether Huffman's analysis might produce any effect on the Appeals Chamber, Gotovina's lawyer Greg Kehoe said that the court always considered analyses made by third parties about its judgements. He said that he expected Huffman's analysis to reach the Appeals Chamber.
Huffman wrote that the Trial Chamber's ruling concerning the charge of excessive shelling had no basis in international law and practice.
