The Zagreb County Court on Wednesday decided to set month-long detention for Josip Boljkovac, who is suspected of involvement in war crimes committed by the Yugoslav Partizan forces in the area of Duga Resa, Croatia, in May 1945.
The 91-year-old Boljkovac, who was questioned by a judge on Wednesday afternoon after he was arrested in the morning in his house in Vukova Gorica, south of Zagreb, is charged with command responsibility for the execution of 21 civilians at Vidanka-Curak in May 1945.
Some 50 witnesses are to be questioned during the investigation in Boljkovac, who used to be a high-ranking official of the Yugoslav communist security agency OZNA and who was the first interior minister of Croatia when the country gained its independence in 1991.
His lawyer Anto Nobilo announced an appeal against Boljkovac's detention in custody, explaining that his client was an old many who could walk only on crutches, was suffering from dementia and was disoriented.
He reiterated that his client had not commanded the units that had committed the atrocities in Duga Resa.
The lawyer insists on political connotations of the arrest of his client and his detention in custody, claiming that Interior Minister Tomislav Karamako of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) is behind proceedings against Boljkovac the purpose of which he says is to stop further media reporting on murky dealings in the HDZ.
