Croatian court adjourns trial of war crimes indictee Glavas again

03/09/2008

ZAGREB, Croatia -- A court on Monday (September 1st) once again adjourned the war crimes trial of Branimir Glavas and six co-defendants, media reported on Tuesday. Judge Zeljko Horvatovic decided to postpone the hearing after the new defence counsel of one of the defendants walked out of the courtroom to protest the court's refusal to give her more time to acquaint herself with the minutes of the trial.

Since the court will not reconvene until the end of September -- more than two months after the last hearing -- the trial will have to start from scratch. It began in November 2007, but after only three hearings the composition of the trial chamber was changed. Thus, for procedural reasons it has already had to start from scratch once before. Glavas and his co-defendants are charged with war crimes committed in the eastern Osijek region, in connection with the 1991 torture and murder of ten ethnic Serb civilians. (SRNA, HRT, Beta - 02/09/08)