CROATIA: WAR CRIMES SUSPECT HOSPITALISED AFTER LOSING APPEAL

CROATIA: WAR CRIMES SUSPECT HOSPITALISED AFTER LOSING APPEAL

Zagreb, 31 Oct. (AKI) - Fasting independent member of the Croatian parliament, Branimir Glavas has been admitted to hospital and has lost an appeal against his detention last week on suspicion of having committed war crimes against Serb civilians during the 1990 Balkan wars, local media reported on Tuesday. Glavas was hospitalised four days into a hunger strike to protest his innocence.

Glavas’ lawyers said that he was suffering from diabetes and was transferred to a Zagreb jail hospital late on Monday - after the court turned down his appeal for release - because a prolonged hunger strike might put his life at risk. His detention was ordered to prevent him influencing witnesses, the court said.

Glavas, who was a military commander of the eastern city of Osijek during Croatia’s 1991-1995 war of secession from the former Yugoslavia, was detained last Thursday in Zagreb and immediately went on a protest hunger strike, saying he was the victim of an "orchestrated political trial."

He is suspected of having ordered the killing of at least two Serb civilians and of having tortured several others. Glavas denies the accusations, saying they are just acts of revenge by his political opponents.

Croatian police last week arrested six people in connection with the killing of several Serb civilians, their mouths taped and arms tied behind their backs, on the bank of the Drava River in Osijek in 1991. Croatian media said most of them, including Glavas’ former secretary Gordana
Getos Magdic, admitted to the killings, saying the orders were issued by Glavas himself through his secretary.

Glavas was a close ally of late Croatian president Franjo Tudjman who led the country to independence, but after Tudjman’s death, deserted his centre-right Democratic Croatian Union and ran for parliament as an independent, establishing himself once again as the most powerful
political figure in Osijek.

The war crimes committed in Osijek have been public knowledge for over 15 years and over 80 percent of the population support the drive to bring criminals to justice, according to Croatian media. MPs have questioned why Glavas is Croatia's last war crimes suspect to have avoided being brought to justice .

(Vpr/Aki)