Wartime Assistant Interior Minister Tomislav Mercep is suspected of the murder or disappearance of 43 people from the Zagreb, Kutina and Pakrac areas from October to mid-December 1991, the Zagreb County Prosecutor's Office said on Sunday, asking the county court to investigate Mercep and put him in 30-day custody.
He was arrested at his home in Zagreb on Friday and placed in two-days' custody. He was interviewed by the police and an investigating judge, dismissing all the charges. After the hearing, Mercep was transferred to a prison hospital in a poor state of health brought on by an earlier stroke.
The Zagreb County Prosecutor's Office has requested an investigation into the 58-year-old for war crimes against civilians and month-long custody to prevent him from escaping and tampering with witnesses and because of the gravity of the crimes.
Mercep is accused of ordering unlawful arrests, torture and killing of civilians, as an advisor at the Interior Ministry and commander of the ministry's special reserve unit stationed in Pakracka Poljana and partly in a Zagreb warehouse, between October 8 and mid-December 1991.
He is also accused of failing to stop or prevent those crimes despite knowing that his subordinates were making unlawful arrests, robbing, abusing, torturing and killing civilians.
The prosecutor's office argues that 43 people were killed or went missing, while six survived the torture and abuse.
Mercep is expected to be interviewed by an investigating judge on Monday.
