Trial against Svetozar Karan, charged with a war crime against prisoners of war referred to in Article 122 of the OKZRH.
TRIAL AT FIRST INSTANCE
Gospić County Court
Case file no.: K-4/03
Judges' panel: judge Branko Milanović, presiding, judge Dušan Šporčić, member, lay judges Dundović, Tomo Dokozić and Ivan Kocijan, members
Indictment: no. K-DO-15/02 of 27 February 2003 issued by the Gospić ŽDO, amended at the main hearing held on 30 July 2003
Criminal offence: war crime against prisoners of war referred to in Article 122 of the OKZRH
Defendant: Svetozar Karan, available
Defence counsel: Toni Vukičević, lawyer practicing in Split
Victims - maltreated: Nikola Nikolić, Mile Lukač, Ivan Čajić and Ivan Dadić
According to the Gospić County Court's Verdict No. K-4/03-185 of 30 July 2003, defendant Svetozar Karan was found guilty as charged that:
- in Korenica from 23 October until 27 November 1991, in his capacity as member of the reserve formation of "Militia SAO Krajina", together with other members of Militia, he was beating war prisoners Nikola Nikolić and Mile Lukač;
- in his capacity as member of the Military Policy Squad of the 15th Corpus of the so-called the RSK Army, and commander of the prison guards' shift located in the primary school in Frkašić, from the beginning of December 1994 until February 1995, he was beating detained members of HV, HVO and the BiH Army, he was giving the dormitory keys to the Serb ethnicity prisoners who were then entering the dormitories and by following his orders were beating the prisoners, in particular detained members of HV Ivan Čajić and Ivan Dadić.
For the criminal offence under count (1), he was sentenced to 5 years in prison, and for the criminal offence under count (2) he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Therefore, he received a joint prison sentence of 13 years imprisonment.
The Gospić County Court's Verdict No. K-4/03-185 of 30 July 2003 can be read in Croatian here.
THE VSRH DECISION
On 29 January 2004, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia accepted the appeal lodged by defendant Karan, quashed the first-instance verdict and remanded the case back to the first-instance court for a retrial before a completely changed composition of the council.
The VSRH Verdict No. I Kž 862/03-8 of 29 January 2004 is available in Croatian here.
REPEATED FIRST-INSTANCE PROCEEDINGS
Karlovac County Court
Case file no.: K-4/04
War Crimes Council: judge Jasminka Jerinić Mušnjak, Council President, judges Milan Kosijer and Vesna Britvec, Council Members
Defendant: Svetozar Karan, available
Defence Counsels: Toni Vukičević, lawyer practicing in Split and Čedo Prodanović, lawyer practicing in Zagreb
Victims - maltreated: Nikola Nikolić, Mile Lukač, Ivan Čajić and Ivan Dadić
According to the Karlovac County Court's Verdict No. K-4/04-282 of 30 June 2005, defendant Svetozar Karan was found guilty again. In respect of the second count of the indictment (and of the verdict) it was established that the defendant acted in capacity as member of the Military Police Squad and as a guard, but not as guard commander.
For the criminal offence under the count (1), he was sentenced to 5 years in prison. The defendant was also sentenced to 5 years in prison for the criminal offence under the count (2). Therefore, he received a joint sentence of 7 years of imprisonment.
THE VSRH VERDICT
On 7 February 2006, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia rejected as unfounded the appeal lodged by defendant Svetozar Karan and confirmed the verdict of the court of first instance.
The VSRH verdict No. I Kž 953/05-7 of 7 February 2006 is available in Croatian here.
Note:
The Verdict No. K-4/03-185 of 30 July 2003 rendered by the Gospić County Court in its explanation (on page 23) contained the following:
"The Court also did not accept the defendant's defence regarding his, as he stated, voluntary return to Croatia, for the reason that the defendant returned back to the crime scene, where he committed the crime, although he knew that the persons whom he was beating had not been allowed to look at him during this beating, so he concluded that they practically could not have possibly seen him, let alone recognise him, and besides this what he did had been committed long time ago and therefore the injured parties had forgotten much of it. At the same time worth mentioning is that it can only be concluded that the defendant figured out that Croatia was in such a bad shape and that soon it would simply disappear, because Croats are not satisfied with their status, that it could easily come to disagreement among them and because of that they would soon seek for someone to become its burden, as was the case for almost 900 years, and the defendant and his ancestors were someone else's burden in the last 80 years and enjoyed it well, so why wouldn't he [the def. ] come again when there is a good chance that he would regain that position, because Croatia, when assessed from the outside, is certainly facing a collapse, and this is a moment when "Memorandum" can fully be fulfilled, and the fulfillment of which almost occurred. Vojvodina, Srijem and half Bosnia is already occupied, and the other half would be easily handled, what is only left is the 'line' Virovitica, Karlovac, Karlobag - this is the reason why the criminals who committed crimes in Croatia are returning back, when in reality they are the ones who committed genocide against Croats and this not only in this war, but together with others they were committing those crimes for over 500 years since the arrival of Turks, when together with them they were coming and destroying Croats, and after 'joining' these regions to Yugoslavia they practically destroyed them in certain areas and their aim is to occupy areas as far as the Osman reached it, and together with Osmans as far as the defendant and his ancestors reached it, and what would be left of Croatia is only "the residues of the residues of Croatia". In addition to this and the crimes committed by the defendant, he was practically awarded because all what he possessed he took to Serbia, with (continued on page 24) others he destroyed one half of Croatia, and returned to receive award from the Croatian state, and Croatia is expected to reconstruct if something was destroyed to him, while at the same time Croatia has neglected its volunteers who fought for freedom and refugees who escaped from the 'knife' that we all know whose it is, and someone has to be in charge of the people returning back and, among others, this is the defendant. One of the reasons why the defendant returned is to finalize Croatia's destruction, because the state which is exhausted economically is the state which would easily give in and surrender itself to mercy of the others, and this is award for the crime which he committed and for this reason he returned to the Republic of Croatia.
This is the reason why the court did not accept the defendant's defence, and because of the aforementioned reasons too, therefore the court undoubtedly established that the defendant committed the crime as stated in the ordering part of the verdict."
