Mišetić: Hague did not confirm that Croatian soldiers killed civilians in Uzdolje
Lawyer Luka Mišetić refuted claims by SNV's Eugen Jakovčić, citing Judge Kinis's dissenting opinion in the Gotovina trial judgment.
Lawyer Luka Mišetić refuted claims by SNV's Eugen Jakovčić, citing Judge Kinis's dissenting opinion in the Gotovina trial judgment.
Lawyer Luka Mišetić, who defended General Ante Gotovina in The Hague, refuted the claims made by Eugen Jakovčić, spokesperson for the Serb National Council (SNV), regarding the events in the village of Uzdolje. Jakovčić had claimed that the "Hague investigation," along with fieldwork by the Zagreb-based organization Documenta, had established "beyond reasonable doubt" that Croatian soldiers killed civilians of Serb ethnicity on August 6, 1995.
Mišetić responded on social media platform X on August 6, 2026, stating that this is not accurate. "It is not true that the 'Hague investigation' established that Croatian soldiers killed civilians in Uzdolje. The Trial Chamber in the Gotovina case was divided 2:1 on this issue, and the Appeals Chamber did not review it," Mišetić wrote.
A key part of Mišetić's argument is Judge Kinis's dissenting opinion from the trial judgment. The lawyer points out that Jakovčić omits this in his claims. In his reasoning, Judge Kinis stated that based on witness testimony, he could not rule out the possibility that the perpetrators were not members of the Croatian Army.
"Additionally, one of the three men asked Witness 3 if she knew a man called Thompson, whom he described as a terrible man who sings Ustasha songs and is the brother of a man with long black hair. Based on this conversation and the doubts I have already expressed regarding the appearance of the three men, I cannot rule out the possibility that they were members of a local criminal gang. All in all, I find that the evidence raises reasonable doubt as to the conclusion that the person who killed the aforementioned individuals was a member of the Croatian armed forces," wrote Judge Kinis.
Mišetić reminded that as early as August 6, 2021, he had published a detailed factual account of Uzdolje on X, refuting the then-published articles by SNV's Novosti. In his new post in 2026, he stated that "the falsehood continues to spread even today."
The claims by the SNV spokesperson refer to the event of August 6, 1995, when three men in Croatian Army camouflage uniforms, armed with automatic rifles, drove into the Šare hamlet in the village of Uzdolje and killed civilians of Serb ethnicity. While Jakovčić and Documenta Zagreb claim it has been unequivocally established that the perpetrators were Croatian soldiers, Mišetić points to the divided opinion of the judicial panel and Judge Kinis's conclusion, which leaves room for reasonable doubt.
