Croat war crimes suspect pleads not guilty

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Croat war crimes suspect pleads not guilty

December 12, 2005 09:53:00 am

[JURIST] Retired Croatian general Ante Gotovina [BBC profile; ICTY case backgrounder] pleaded not guilty Monday in his first appearance before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague after he was transferred to its detention facility over the weekend following his arrest in Spain [JURIST report] on Wednesday. The tribunal's indictment [text] charges him in connection with the killing of Croatian Serb civilians during the Balkan wars in the 1990s, including failing to prevent the murder of 150 in Krajina during the 1995 Operation Storm offensive [Wikipedia backgrounder] which forced some 90,000 other Serbs from their homes. On Sunday, tens of thousands of protesting Croats took to the streets [AKI report] in Split and other Croatian cities, hailing Gotovina as a national hero. BBC News has more.

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