Zeljko Travica (C), before the verdict was pronounced on Friday at Osijek County Court. Photo: Milan Bugaric.
Osijek County Court found Zeljko Travica guilty and sentenced him to 20 years in prison for war crimes committed against captured Croatian defenders of the villages of Ceric and Mirkovci in 1991, at the start of the Croatian War of Independence.
The ruling was a first-instance judgment and can be appealed.
After the judge explained the verdict, Travica told the courtroom: “Death to fascism, freedom to the common man. I am not guilty!”
Travica, 64, was charged with committing war crimes between October 2 and 4, 1991, in Ceric and Mirkovci in eastern Croatia as a member of the Serb paramilitary Territorial Defence force unit in Mirkovci. The crimes occurred during a joint attack by members of the Yugoslav People’s Army, JNA, and the Territorial Defence force on Ceric, and after the occupation of the village.
According to the prosecution, Travica, together with other members of the Territorial Defence force, lined up and shot dead eight captured police officers from the Vinkovci Police Department and members of the Croatian Defence Forces, HOS, even though they had stopped resisting and laid down their weapons.
Travica was also accused of physically abusing tied-up Croatian defenders and, together with other members of the Mirkovci Territorial Defence, laughing while one member of the paramilitary formation forced prisoners to eat human brains from a soldier’s helmet.
At the last hearing, held earlier this week, Travica presented his defence but asked that it be read aloud for him due to his poor health. His lawyer, Marko Cvrkovic, read the statement on his behalf. Travica denied committing war crimes and said he was forced by the Serb authorities to take part in the violence.
“Although I opposed the attack on Ceric, I had to participate in it,” Travica wrote in his defence.
“I know that after the attack, the JNA captured three young Croatian soldiers who were frightened, but I did not abuse them because I am familiar with the Geneva Conventions,” his statement said.
It also noted that Travica actively participated in the peaceful reintegration of the area after the war and was then elected mayor of Mirkovci in 1997.
“This procedure against me was staged, because if I had really done what I am accused of, I would have been prosecuted immediately after the Homeland War,” Travica’s defence statement said.
The prosecutor described Travica’s statement as false and aimed at avoiding criminal responsibility. The prosecutor added that a surviving witness, Zoran Sorli, testified that Travica had tied his hands, legs and neck with wire, while another witness, Ivan Kopcic, stated that Travica beat the prisoners and was present when they were forced to eat human brains.
Travica’s lawyer argued that it had not been proven that the defendant committed the alleged crimes and that the exact circumstances surrounding the deaths of the Croatian soldiers had not been clarified. He also said the court’s refusal to hear certain proposed defence witnesses, who were eyewitnesses or participants in the events described in the indictment, violated the right to a fair trial.
Travica was arrested on October 5, 2024, at the Calais border crossing in France upon entry from Britain, and extradited to Croatia and brought to Osijek prison.
