The Zagreb County Prosecutor's Office has issued an indictment against wartime Assistant Interior Minister Tomislav Mercep for war crimes against civilians committed in 1991.
The unit under his command is held responsible for the murder of 43 civilians and the disappearance of three persons in Zagreb, Kutina and Pakrac.
The indictment was filed with the Zagreb County Court on Wednesday, the head of the court's War Crimes Department, Zdravko Majerovic, confirmed to press on Thursday.
A panel of judges will be meeting on Friday to decide on a prosecution motion for the extension of detention because of the grave circumstances in which the alleged crimes were committed, Majerovic said.
If no indictment had been issued, Mercep would have to be released on Friday because a suspect may be detained for a maximum of six months without being formally charged.
The 59-year-old Mercep is currently in a spa due to his ill health. He had a stroke four years ago, and immediately after his arrest on December 10 last year and a questioning by an investigative judge, he was admitted to a prison hospital.
According to the indictment, issued after a six-month investigation, from October 8 until mid-December 1991 Mercep personally ordered arrests, torture and murder of civilians. At the time he served as commander of a reserve police 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.
Mercep claims he is innocent.
