The trial of four Croatian Air Force officers accused by Serbia of war crimes committed in the August 1995 Operation Storm has been scheduled to start on 26 December, the attorney for one of the accused said on Wednesday.

The Belgrade High Court’s war crimes division made a decision to that effect after a closed preliminary hearing today.

Croatia does not recognise Serbia’s jurisdiction in this case and its highest officials have said a number of times that it is a provocation, a politically motivated indictment, and that Croatia will do everything to protect the pilots.

The Croatian officers are out of Serbian authorities’ reach and whether they will be tried in absentia will be decided by a Belgrade High Court panel before the start of the trial, attorney Aleksandar Olenik told Tanjug news agency.

A representative of the pilots, Dusan Bratic, told Tanjug that at today’s hearing the High Court acted in line with the Geneva Convention, which stipulates that all signatory states are obliged to prosecute perpetrators of serious crimes against international humanitarian law.

Serbia has shown that it has its own prosecutor’s office and its own court with people who have moral integrity, as they have dared to act in line with the law and prosecute despite tremendous pressure from Croatia, Bratic said.

Vladimir Mikac (67), Zdenko Radulj (69), Zeljko Jelenic (69) and Danijel Borovic (64) have been indicted for ordering air strikes against the civilian population which resulted in the death and wounding of a number of civilians who were leaving Croatian territory.

Thirteen fatalities have been identified, including four children, while 24 persons were wounded.

The prosecutor’s office moved that the four defendants be tried in absentia.

The indictment says the time that has passed since the events in question is sufficient reason to doubt that Croatia or Bosnia and Herzegovina will instigate criminal proceedings against those responsible.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic has said that for Croatia this is a “non-existent procedure” and a “farce”, and that if the four pilots are convicted, “that conviction won’t exist for us.”