The Croatian Ministry of Justice said on Tuesday that the relevant authorities would fully comply with the decision by the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) ordering Croatia to "cease all criminal proceedings and investigations" against members of General Ante Gotovina's defence team and to return all the material seized from his defence team in Croatia.
"The Appeals Chamber has ordered the Republic of Croatia to cease all criminal proceedings against members of the Gotovina defence team for acts performed in the fulfilment of their official function before the ICTY, to cease all present and future investigations against members of the defence team for acts performed in the fulfilment of their official function before the ICTY, and to return to the defence team all the material seized from them, including documents, computers, CD-ROMs and diskettes," the ministry said.
The Appeals Chamber made its decision nearly a year after the Gotovina defence appealed against members of his investigative team not enjoying immunity from proceedings in Croatia.
The Gotovina defence team claimed that all its members must enjoy immunity and the trial chamber at the time acknowledged that there existed a problem with that, but confined itself to expressing concern about the lack of a legal instrument that would give functional immunity to members of the defence team.
