The 59-year-old Mercep has been in custody for six months now, although not in Zagreb's Remetinec Prison, but in a spa because of his ill health. The indictment against him was issued on Thursday after a six-month investigation.

Mercep is charged with personally ordering illegal arrests, torture and murder of civilians from October 8 until mid-December 1991. At the time he served as commander of a police reserve unit based partly in Pakracka Poljana and partly at the International Trade Fair complex in Zagreb.

The indictment says that Mercep knew that his subordinates were unlawfully arresting, robbing, torturing and killing civilians but did nothing to prevent them. His unit arrested 52 persons in the Zagreb, Kutina and Pakrac areas and killed 43 of them; six survived the torture, while three are still unaccounted for.

Among the victims were the Zec family - Mihailo, Marija and their 12-year-old daughter Aleksandra, who were killed on Mount Sljeme, overlooking Zagreb, during the night between December 7 and 8, 1991. Although five members of Mercep's unit had admitted the crime before an investigative judge, they were never prosecuted because of a procedural error -- they had been questioned without the presence of their lawyers.

Mercep will be tried under the Penal Code that was in force at the time relevant to the indictment. If found guilty, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years' imprisonment. He claims he is innocent.

In late 2006, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) posted on its website an October 1995 report on Mercep's role in war crimes against Serbs in Pakracka Poljana, Gospic, Vukovar and Zagreb. Global human rights watchdog Amnesty International also mentioned Mercep in its report.

Mercep was among nine candidates in the 2000 presidential race.