Wartime assistant interior minister Tomislav Mercep, who is under investigation for the alleged killings or disappearance of 43 civilians at the start of the war in the early 1990s, will remain in custody for two more months, the Zagreb County Court decided on Monday.
Investigating judge Mirko Klinzic extended the custody order, citing a risk of the suspect's tampering with witnesses and the gravity of the alleged crimes.
Mercep is staying in the prison hospital in Zagreb because three years ago he had suffered a stroke.
Mercep is accused of ordering illegal arrests, torture and killings of civilians and of failure to prevent those crimes, which were committed in Zagreb, Kutina and Pakrac between October 8 and mid-December 1991.
Prosecutors allege that 43 civilians were killed or disappeared, while six survived the torture.
