Politician Branimir Glavas, who is standing a retrial for war crimes committed against Serbs in Osijek, filed a criminal complaint against the key witness, Krunoslav Fehir, for the 1991 murder of Cedomir Vuckovic in a garage in Osijek, just before Fehir is about to testify in the ongoing trial of Glavas and five more co-defendants.

This information was provided by Zagreb County Court on Monday.

Vuckovic was murdered in August 1991 in a garage in Osijek by Fehir, who was at the time a 16-year-old member of the so-called Branimir Battalion and who was later given the status of protected witness whose testimonies incriminated Glavas at previous trials.

Fehir’s statement was crucial for the delivery of a guilty verdict against Glavas and other co-defendants. However, the sentencing verdicts against Glavas and Ivica Krnjak, Gordana Getos Magdic, Dino Kontic, Tihomir Valentic and Zdravko Dragic were quashed by the Constitutional Court.

The retrial began in 2017 with Glavas and his co-defendants pleading not guilty to charges of war crimes against Serbs in Osijek.

In the first trial, which lasted from October 2007 to April 2009, 120 witnesses were questioned.

The retrial is being repeated a decade since Glavas and the other defendants were found guilty and sentenced to prison terms ranging from five to ten years. The Supreme Court shortened their sentences in a 2010 verdict.

The first verdict by the Supreme Court against Glavas, in the duration of eight years, which he served in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, was quashed by the Constitutional Court in early 2015.