Zagreb County Court

Croatian Radio and Television. Photo: HRT.

The court said HRT was a victim of uneven judicial practice by Croatian courts, but that its rights from the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms had not been violated.

The retrial of former general Branimir Glavas and other defendants for war crimes in the Croatian eastern city of Osijek in 1991 opened at Zagreb County Court on Monday.

At Monday's hearing, Glavas's defence requested that the trial be transferred from Zagreb to the Osijek County Court.

Former Serb paramilitary fighter Zoran Roksandic was sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison for committing a war crime by killing a female civilian and attempting to murder of her husband in a village near the central Croatian town of Glina in 1991, Croatian media reported on Tuesday.

Zagreb County Court on Monday acquitted former Yugoslav People's Army, JNA colonel Vladimir Davidovic of the shelling of the northern Croatian city of Varazdin in September 1991 after retrying him in absentia.

Two Croatian human rights organisations criticised Croatia for the "slow processing of war crimes" in a statement to mark the European Day for Victims of Crime on Monday.

The Croatian Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that it has confirmed the verdict sentencing former Croatian Army soldier Josip Mrsic to three years in prison for committing war crimes against civilians during 1993 'Medak Pocket' operation in southern Croatia.

The Croatian Supreme Court announced on Thursday that it has confirmed the verdict convicting former Serb paramilitaries Dusan Zarkovic, Bogdan Jednak and Dusan Martic in their absence of the killings of Croatian civilians.

It said that it had also accepted an appeal from the state attorney and increased the men's sentences from ten to 15 years in prison.

The Croatian Supreme Court announced on Tuesday that it has confirmed the verdict sentencing former army officer Josip Krmpotic to three years in prison for committing war crimes against civilians during the 'Medak Pocket' operation in southern Croatia, but acquitting him of failing to prevent the killing of prisoners of war.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a ruling allowing Tomislav Mercep, a former Croatian interior ministry assistant and unofficial commander of a reservist police battalion nicknamed the 'Mercepovci' ('Mercep's Men') to be released on parole.

Zagreb County Court on Tuesday convicted Milan Martic, the former president of an unrecognised wartime Serb rebel statelet called the Republic of Serbian Krajina, and his military chief-of-staff, Milan Celeketic, of staging rocket attacks on Croatian cities in 1995.

Under the first-instance verdict, Martic was sentenced to seven years in prison and Celeketic to 20 years.