Zagreb

The Croatian Supreme Court announced on Thursday that it has confirmed the verdict convicting former Serb paramilitaries Dusan Zarkovic, Bogdan Jednak and Dusan Martic in their absence of the killings of Croatian civilians.

It said that it had also accepted an appeal from the state attorney and increased the men's sentences from ten to 15 years in prison.

Zagreb county court on Monday acquitted Dragan Cavic, a former paramilitary from the Republic of Serbian Krajina, an unrecognised wartime Croatian Serb-led statelet, of committing war crimes against civilians in the Petrinja area in July 1993.

Zagreb county court has rejected an indictment accusing 29 Serbs of war crimes over dozens of killings in the Croatian village of Vocin in 1991, ruling that it needs to be clarified.

Zagreb county court sentenced former Serb paramilitaries Dusan Zarkovic and Bogdan Jednak to 15 years in prison each for taking part in the killing of 21 Croats in Josevica in central Croatia in December 1991.

The retrial of Miroslav Jovic, a member of rebel Croatian Serb forces accused of killing one Croat civilian and wounding another during wartime in 1991, started at Zagreb county court.

Zagreb county court jailed three former Serb fighters in their absence for burning down a Croatian village in 1991, handing down prison sentences ranging from five-and-a-half to seven-and-a-half years.

Croatian wartime general Branimir Glavas, now an MP, and five others accused of war crimes against Serb civilians in the city of Osijek in 1991-92 pleaded not guilty at Zagreb county court.

The Croatian office for suppressing corruption and organised crime, USKOK, filed an indictment on Friday against two Croatian citizens over the controversial deal to repair and buy MiG military jets from the Ukrainian state-owned arms company Ukrspecexport.

Oliver Frljic, a well-known director and the head of the Croatian National Theatre in the coastal city of Rijeka, told BIRN that he has "lost all hope that police will solve the numerous threats and pressures"that he has encountered since he started running the theatre in September 2014.

Zagreb county court has scheduled the start of Sanader's retrial for September 7 on charges of abuse of office, war profiteering and bribery.

Sanader's eight-and-a-half-year sentence was revoked by the constitutional court on Monday due to procedural errors.