The legal team of Croatian general Anto Gotovina, who was sentenced to 2011 years in prison in April 24 for crimes against Serbs in the "Storm" operation, called on the Appellate Council of the Hague Tribunal to accept the request for the granting of friend of the court status submitted by 12 Western military and legal experts.
The proposed request for granting that status offers the judicial panel an independent and objective assessment of the leading experts in the field, the defense points out in the document submitted on January 27, which was published by the Tribunal.
"A group of 12 legal and military experts requested, in a document submitted to the Hague Court on January 13, the status of friends of the court in the case of Anto Gotovina and Mladen Markač, in order to present their views on the conclusions of the first-instance verdict, which concern the illegality of the artillery attacks in Ujja". the defense states.
The Hague Prosecutor's Office asked the judges last week to reject that request, judging that their act is mostly irrelevant or deals with factual issues, so it cannot be of help to the judicial panel in considering the appeals filed against the first-instance verdict.
"Experts can also help in establishing that the first-instance judgment incorrectly determined the criterion of the legality of an artillery hit with a deviation of up to 200 m," the defense claims.
Gotovina's defense notes, however, that these are 12 experts with knowledge in the field of practical application of the law of war in military operations, whose views could help the judges in understanding the issues that lie between the law of war and the technical aspects of conducting military operations.
There, the question is highlighted whether the legality of Gotovina's order was considered in a wrong way by the non-final verdict and whether the attack on the commander of the enemy forces can be considered disproportionate.
"Experts can also help in establishing that the first-instance verdict incorrectly determined the criterion of the legality of an artillery hit with a deviation of up to 200 meters," claimed Gotovina's defense.
They also remind that one of the applicants was a member of the team of the former Hague chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte and add that "those 12 individuals should not be tarnished as biased or those who lack objectivity, because there is no evidence to support such accusations".
Gotovina's lawyers point out that the request for friend of the court status is correctly based on the conclusion of the non-final verdict that at least 95 percent of all Croatian Army shells fired at Knin were aimed at military facilities, which the prosecution does not deny.
"Nothing in the verdict suggests that any of those 95% shells hit anything other than military targets or their immediate vicinity," the defense said.
"Nothing in the verdict suggests that any of those 95 percent shells hit anything other than military targets or their immediate vicinity," the defense believes.
Ante Gotovina, who led the "Storm" operation, was sentenced to 24 years, and Mladen Markač, who commanded the special police, to 18 years in prison.
General Ivan Cermak, who commanded the Knin area after the Storm, was acquitted.
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