The defence team for General Mladen Markac said at the appeals hearing before the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague on Monday that a conclusion on the existence of a joint criminal enterprise aimed at the persecution of the Serb population could not be drawn from the transcripts of the Brijuni meeting.
If we read the transcripts of the Brijuni meeting we will see that there is no joint criminal enterprise there. Isn't it unusual that nobody found a witness to confirm that, Markac's attorney John Jones said.
Markac's deference team claim that if there had been no illegal attack, their client could not have taken part in it, which he is accused of.
Jones said that all conclusions from the trial chamber's verdict about the persecution of civilians were based on the conclusion on the illegal shelling, stressing that if there had been no illegal shelling, there had not been a joint criminal enterprise either.
Without illegal shelling the entire verdict is groundless, Jones said.
Markac's attorneys said there was no reason not to trust the sincerity of the invitation the then Croatian president Franjo Tudjman extended to local Serbs not to leave their homes.
The prosecutors are scheduled to present their arguments next.
