"In August 1995 in the village of Rudela, hamlet of Tisma after a short conversation with elderly woman Manda Tisma, Zeljko Sunjerga, from a close range and with intention to kill the victim, cocked his rifle, MB-70 AB, and fired several bullets into the victim." Therefore, the indictment states that "the only motive for the murder (as quoted by Slobodna Dalmacija in its report from the trial) was national hatred, since the accused was aware that the woman was of Serb nationality."
"It has been established that the victim did reach with her hand (during the 'short conversation' with the accused) under the apron, which made Sunjerga warn his comrades with a cry and than, sensing danger, fire. Neither the premeditation nor the national hatred had been proven by the prosecution. Whether Sunjerga acted properly or made a mistake and was guilty of manslaughter cannot be decided by this court since that would be going beyond the indictment." This paragraph is taken from the statement of the judge Milivoj Lasan, which justifies the not guilty verdict and the decision to immediately release Zeljko Sunjerga from the detention! Between the indictment and the verdict, a trial took place. However, it seems that the only thing about the trial that is worth mentioning is that the witnesses (among them was a comrade of the accused who had been brought to the court room directly from jail since he is a suspect in another crime) managed to prove that old woman Manda Tisma actually, during a "short conversation" with Sunjerga, committed suicide in a manner until now not recorded in judicial documents: she unexpectedly reached under her apron! The only connection between Sunjerga and her personal and absolutely private tragedy was that he fired "a short burst of fire" at her. Then, "he went back to the vehicle and [the soldiers] left the village."
"As a professional, I do not want to accept that that man, Zeljko Sunjerga, was acquitted," said on the other hand, president of the County prosecutor's office, in Zadar, Ivan Galovic, "since one must have in mind that this is only a first instance verdict, not a final one. I don't have that verdict, I haven't seen it because it hasn't yet been written; because of that, my office hasn't yet appealed the verdict. But, do not be mistaken, we will definitely appeal that verdict. We are convinced that the decision of the Court was wrong and that the Supreme Court will overturn the verdict. Still, I do not want to comment questionable details of the trial, since the period between the first verdict and the appeal to the Supreme Court is very sensitive, especially since the verdict hasn't yet been written." Whether it will be written in Sunjerga's acquittal that it was a case of supposed necessary defense or something else, will definitively be of no concern to murdered Manda Tisma, and probably Sunjerga himself. As far as he is concerned, the important thing is that he was released and that can move on, either "supposedly" or in any other way.
"While we are awaiting the 'official' verdict and the 'response' of the Supreme Court to the appeal from my office I can only hope that Sunjerga will remain on the Croatian territory and be accessible to the police," added Ivan Galovic. "As you are aware, he is now free and my office has no information regarding his address. It is not necessary to emphasize the possible influence this case could have on all similar cases, judicial procedure and prevention of similar crimes. I will tell you that it is extremely difficult to find witnesses in this type of cases. Even Croats are reluctant to testify about the crimes committed by Serbs; you can imagine how difficult it is to find Serbs who will testify about crimes committed by Croats."
Therefore, Lasan is not prepared to "give court documents" to journalists (at this stage of the case nothing, apart from the consideration towards the public, obliges him to do that), neither is he prepared to answer any questions that he hasn't already answered; for example he refused to reveal names of other members of the court council, or the number of witnesses who testified. In accordance with that, he advised us to approach the president of the County court in Zadar, Benko Velcic: "Go ask him, it's not only my verdict!"
We decided to follow Lasan's advice. Unfortunately, president Velcic immediately stated that apart from the five member court council no one knows about the detail of the trial and that any "questions about the possible pressure exerted on the judges would be very inappropriate," and as far as he is concerned, "I don't know anything about that case and you should wait for the verdict and the possible appeal by the County prosecutor's office. Besides, the trial was public and it is not necessary to make such a fuss nor is it necessary to comment the decision."
Maybe all these details of the gloomy story about the murder of a civilian after a battle are "not important" when compared with the sudden breakout of the affirmation of the rule of law in our state, so that from "the patriotic point of view", one cannot waste time on those "trivial" details when we should be unmasking bigger criminals who are working against our state. Maybe, there is, after all, a premeditated model for the forthcoming trials which will be used to polish state's conscience in connection with the prosecution of our own criminals; some of them might have already been decorated; the trials for brutal murders of Serb civilians in Varivode and Gasici, which have been demanded by the international community should follow in the near future.
And the model could be described as follows: Europe sated, rule of law totally full and all the criminals still free.