The Zagreb County Court chamber conducting the trial for the October 2008 murder of journalist Ivo Pukanic on Wednesday rejected the defence motion to remove from the case file the statement by the first defendant Robert Matanic in which he revealed to investigators who allegedly ordered the murder.
Matanic said at the start of his defence case last month that investigators from the national office for the prevention of corruption and organised crime, or USKOK, had tricked him by offering him protected witness status in exchange for a false statement, so that he, based on his suspicions rather than first-hand evidence, named Sreten Jocic, Jocic's close friend Slobodan Djurovic, retired Croatian army general Vladimir Zagorec, and Montenegrin businessman Stanko Subotic as persons who had ordered Pukanic's murder.
Judge Ivana Krsul said that it had been established beyond any doubt from several sources that it was actually Matanic who had insisted on obtaining protected witness status. She said that no violations of the law had been found that would merit the removal of his statement to USKOK investigators from the case file.
Krsul said that the statement Matanic had made during the investigation indeed differed from his statement at the start of the trial, but stressed that the credibility of his statements would be established by the court.
The court also turned down defence motions to hear Chief Public Prosecutor Mladen Bajic and USKOK Director Dinko Cvitanic.
The next hearing was set for March 23.
