In this week of the trial against the defendant Dinko Ljubomir Sakic, charged with the criminal offence referred to in Article 120, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Croatia, the contradictory character of the proceeding, its dynamics and the impossibility to predict its direction have become obvious.

In the capacity as a witness and not an expert, as proposed by the defence and by the witness himself, Josip Jurcevic gave his testimony on July 5 and 6, 1999. His testimony lasted for 6 hours. The motion to hear this witness was given by the defence after the defendant had finished his statement of defence. The witness was heard with regard to the historical circumstances about which other witnesses have already been heard and which was proposed by the prosecution and approved by the panel.

The mentioned witness, proposed by the defence counsels, testified about some additional documentation that was subsequently provided by the County Public Prosecutor and submitted to the case file on July 7, 1999. The CPP proposed that this documentation also be read during the presentation of evidence.

On the same day, additional testimony was given by the previously examined witness Tibor Lovren_i_, whose testimony lasted for 5 hours. In his testimony, this witness declared himself regarding three different drawings of the Jasenovac camp: one submitted to the Court by the County Public Prosecutor together with the indictment, one submitted to the case file by the witness Jakob Finci, who based his testimony on that particular drawing, and a drawing submitted to the case file by the defendant and on the basis of which he partly testified.

The same witness gave testimony on some photographs inspected during the presentation of evidence.

Due to this newly submitted documentation by the County Public Prosecution and in order to establish its origin, on July 8, 1999 the employees of the Croatian State Archives Josip Kolanovic and Slavica Plese testified again. Their testimonies lasted for about 2 hours and thirty minutes.

After having heard these witnesses, the defence counsel, the attorney-at-law Ivan Kern, proposed some new documentation - the transportation lists that these witnesses spoke about.

The court panel then ruled on the previously emphasized proposals of evidence and agreed that they should be read by the County Public Prosecutor. However, the other motion to additionally hear the witness Dervis Sarac was rejected, while the third motion to supply the transportation lists was pronounced unimportant.

Thus, the court panel has heard all the evidence by the parties and found no need for the presentation of any new evidence. When it was almost time for the concluding statements by the parties, the County Public Prosecutor, Radovan Santek, in accordance with the contents of the presentation of evidence, submitted a changed factual description of the criminal offence with which the defendant Dinko Ljubomir Sakic is charged . The County Public Prosecutor read his submission, stating that the legal framework and the legal qualification of the criminal offence remain the same.

Pursuant to the statutory obligation, the President of the Panel invited the defendant to declare himself with regard to the altered indictment and the defence counsels, after some consultations with the defendant, asked for the statutory term of 8 days to prepare their defence. They explained their request by stating that the new indictment contained some essential differences and new charges.

With regard to the legal rights of the defence to prepare their statement of defence, the Panel interrupted the trial and scheduled the continuation for July 15, 1999.

By explaining this decision, the President of the Panel announced a possibility that after the scheduled term and because of the summer holidays, the trial would probably be continued at the end of August.

The next press conference and press release will be made upon the termination of the trial in the following week.

DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE COURT
Damir Kos