A preliminary hearing in proceedings against four retired Croatian Air Force pilots began in Belgrade on Friday, but the judge immediately adjourned the hearing for procedural reasons and rescheduled it for 16 November.

“The hearing has practically started only formally, but the necessary legal and technical prerequisites for it to take place have not been created, primarily with regard to the fact that the court does not have any information as to whether summonses were served on the accused, hence the judge postponed the hearing,” the court-appointed defence lawyer of one of the accused, Aleksandar Olenik, said.

Olenik told reporters before the hearing that it was necessary to resolve some legal and technical matters, for instance, whether the accused would be summoned to the court or tried in absentia.

The Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office has accused members of the Croatian Air Force Vladimir Mikac (67), Zdenko Radulj (69), Zeljko Jelenic (69) and Danijel Borovic (64) of ordering the rocketing of a refugee convoy near Bosanski Petrovac and in Svodna near Novi Grad (formerly Bosanski Novi) on 7 and 8 August 1995.

According to the indictment, their actions “resulted in the death and wounding of a number of ethnic Serb civilians,” including four children.

Olenik said it was strange that the Prosecutor’s Office did not even try to call the pilots for a hearing.

“In cases involving Croatian citizens, the usual practice is for a summons to be sent and then a response is received from Croatia saying that it does not recognise it,” said Olenik.

He said that this case could have been avoided if the proceedings had been initiated earlier, either in BiH or in Croatia, for which there were grounds, because it is not disputed that the attack on civilians was a war crime.

“There is no doubt that a war crime occurred. There are witnesses, surviving relatives of the dead… the crime is not being disputed considering the amount of evidence, but there is no evidence linking these four pilots to that crime,” said Olenik.

He previously confirmed to Hina that he is not in contact with his client Vladimir Mikac, to whom the Serbian judiciary assigned him as counsel.

Croatia does not recognise the Serbian court’s jurisdiction. Croatia’s top officials have said that this is a provocation and a politically motivated indictment.

After the indictment appeared, Deputy Prime Minister Tomo Medved underscored that Croatia will use all available mechanisms to effectively protect the pilots from accusations from Serbia.