VERDICT AGAINST SERB ŽELJKO TRAVICA IS FABRICATED AND UNJUST

BELGRADE, MAY 10 /SRNA/ - The President of the Alliance of Serbs from the Region Miodrag Linta said that the verdict of the County Court in Osijek, by which Serb Željko Travica was sentenced in a first-instance ruling to 20 years in prison for alleged war crimes in the villages of Cerić and Mirkovci in 1991, is clearly fabricated and unjust.

"The guilty verdict against Željko Travica is one in a series of confirmations that the Croatian judiciary is ethnically motivated and that Serbs accused of alleged war crimes do not receive a fair trial in Croatia," Linta said. Linta stressed that the trial showed that no one killed the eight members of the Croatian Interior Ministry and HOS forces, but rather that they died in combat operations, and that Travica did not abuse three Croatian prisoners, according to a statement from the Alliance of Serbs from the Region. He called on Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujić to send the strongest possible protest to Croatian Justice Minister Damir Habijan over the scandalous first-instance verdict. Linta pointed out that the ruling was delivered without concrete evidence and under strong political and media pressure to continuously reinforce the false narrative dominant in Croatia, according to which Serbs are portrayed exclusively as perpetrators and Croats exclusively as victims. Linta noted that the defense had convincingly demonstrated through strong arguments that the indictment against Travica was fabricated, meaning that his guilt had not been proven. He says that the state prosecutor based the indictment exclusively on false statements made by the key cooperating witness, who was found to be a problematic individual prone to various vices. He added that the defense established that the main cooperating witness had never mentioned Travica in his testimonies before 2021. In addition, Linta says that the court refused to hear defense witnesses, some of whom were participants in the conflict and who claim that Travica had no connection to the crime. According to Linta, it is completely clear that the State Prosecutor's Office and the County Court in Osijek were not interested in establishing the truth. Željko Travica, born in Ervenik in 1962, is accused of allegedly committing a war crime in the villages of Cerić and Mirkovci in 1991. He was arrested on October 5, 2024, while entering France from the United Kingdom at the Port of Calais. He was extradited to Croatia on November 5 of the same year and has since been held in a prison in Osijek. Travica's health condition is very serious, as he has been battling cancer for the past three years.