Regardless of these opinions, the post-Storm spy affair is following, it seems, the usual official procedures. Last week, fifteen out of eighteen accused Serb spies, who had been caught in the operation "Zenit" in October 1995, found themselves in the courtroom of the Military Court in Zagreb. Unlike "Labrador" the first large spying ring, which was broken in Croatia at the beginning of the war and whose members were soon after the capture exchanged or released. Also, as the "Labradors" were discovered after the capture of the then Yugoslav Peoples Army's Fifth Region Air force command building, Croatian intelligence services got hold of an even larger group of accused spies in the operation "Zenit" after the liberation of Knin where they found documents with the data about the spying network and its activities, most of them well organized in three filing cabinets.
Last fall, the news about the arrest of the spies flooded the media at the start of the election campaign. Their hometowns, occupations and professions made the impression that the spies were everywhere around us, that they had penetrated Croatia and were present in police, army, parliament, courts, all the way to schools, factories and pensioner meeting places. For example, several accused were arrested in Zagreb: an advisor in the Croatian Parliament (Nikola Ivancevic), a policemen in the special unit of the Zagreb police district (Mile Cika), a policeman from the prison hospital (Dusan Tarbuk), retired criminal justice expert (Ivica Perner); in Delnice the police arrested retired forestry technician (Jovan Vuckovic); in Rijeka, an office worker, employed by Trans-Adria company (Milan Supica) and unemployed chemistry technician (Savo Tepsa); in Veliko Lijesce on Zumberak a machine technician (Niko Drakulic); In Karlovac, a high school teacher (Irena Predovic); in Koprivnica an economist from "Podravka" (Dusan Dulikravic); in Pakrac (actually Daruvar) a judge from the Pakrac county court (Vojin Mrzic); in Pula a professor (Dorde Vrcelj); in Split a pensioner (Ilija Vrcelj) and finally on the island of Vir, in his summer home, a Slovenian policeman who works at the Krsko nuclear power plant (Rajko Beric). Rajko Jovic, unemployed lawyer and the former judge of the court in Glina, who lived during the war in "Krajina" and from time to time participated in meetings of various governmental and non-governmental organizations, was later added to the group. He was arrested while returning from a meeting of non-governmental organizations which had taken place in Tuzla [in Bosnia-Hercegovina].
In the part of the indictment which gives a detailed description of the criminal act of spying, it says that "all guises of the criminal act of spying are premeditated". Defense's opening statements from last week indicate that the proof of "premeditation" will be the center of the trial, both for the prosecution and for the defense. Last week, Nikola Ivancevic, Mile Cika and Dusan Tarbuk gave the opening statements in their defense in front of the three judge panel of the Military Court in Zagreb. Nikola Ivancevic, who pleaded not guilty, decided to, until further notice, defend himself by silence since he still hasn't had a chance to read the 1400 page indictment and doesn't know what evidence it provides for his guilt. In addition, because of the way in which he was arrested, he doubts that some of the evidence could have been planted by the police; until he can verify that this wasn't the case he will defend himself with silence.
For example, in one of the prosecution documents, Vuletic claimed that Cika had given him the analysis of the situation in the Croatian Army, done by the International Institute for Strategic Research from London, which had allegedly been published in the special police publication available only to a narrow circle of officials in the Croatian police. To Radovic's questions, Cika replied that he didn't know about any top secret publication in which he could have read the analysis of the London institute. Then, Radovic submitted to the Judges a photocopy of a page in Vecernji List with the analysis of the London Institute from which, taking into account that it was correct, the information had probably been copied.
The same was repeated with the alleged Cika's informations about the number of aircraft and helicopters used by the Croatian Air force, and the transfer of the factories "Jedinstvo" and "Prvomajska" to war production. Those informations were also published in Vecernji List and other Croatian papers. Also, Vuletic's report to the bosses in Knin, that he on one occasion visited Cika in his apartment where he was with his wife and children, according to Cika's replies couldn't be correct, since at the time of the Vuletic's visit Cika didn't live with his wife and children but with his present common law wife and her child.
Nevertheless, defense attorney Ranko Radovic has already brought up the questioning of Mirko Vuletic which was carried out by the police in June 1995; Vuletic was released after the questioning. Since, in the meantime, Vuletic was arrested in Belgrade and accused of being a Croatian spy, defense attorneys for other accused, whose connection he allegedly was, will also insist on uncertainty of his true role and the authenticity of the documents written on the bases of his reports in Knin. It seems that Vuletic's spy "handwriting" has contributed to the assessment from the beginning of this article that these spies are above all Balkan spies involved in Balkan spy games.