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Tomislav Mercep in court during his trial. Photo: Beta.

Tomislav Mercep, who is serving a seven-year sentence for war crimes, has spent the past several weeks recuperating at a spa instead of serving his time in jail, Croatian website Index.hr reported on Wednesday.

The Croatian Justice Ministry confirmed that Mercep, on a doctor’s recommendation, is having treatment outside prison from August 1 to September 15, 2018.

Croatian Veterans’ Affairs Minister Tomo Medved told N1 TV that he agreed with the decision on the grounds of the doctor’s recommendation.

“As we usually do in such situations, we supported the initiative in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice,” Medved added.

The Youth Initiative for Human Rights Croatia argued however that prison sentences were not under the jurisdiction of the Veterans’ Affairs Ministry.

“The veterans’ affairs minister has shown in this case that on his own initiative he advocated a change of a court decision on a sentence in the case of war criminal Mercep,” the rights NGO said in a statement.

It also argued that Medved, by making the statement about Mercep, equated him with other Croatian war veterans even though he has been convicted of war crimes.

The Youth Initiative said this was the second time this week that senior officials have expressed sympathy for convicted war criminals.

Croatian and Serbian victims’ rights organisations expressed anger after convicted Croatian war criminal Mirko Norac attended a commemoration of the anniversary of the September 1993 ‘Medak Pocket’ military operation in the town of Gospic on Sunday.

Croatian Defence Minister Damir Krsticevic said he was glad that Norac appeared at the commemoration.

Croatia’s Supreme Court sentenced Mercep to seven years in prison in February 2017, increasing his sentence from five-and-a-half years.

Mercep was convicted of not preventing a reservist police battalion nicknamed the Mercepovci (‘Mercep’s Men’), from detaining, torturing and killing several dozen mainly Serb civilians at the Zagreb Trade Fair, Kutina in central Croatia and Pakracka Poljana in western Slavonia in late 1991.

A total of 46 civilians were killed by the Mercepovci, three went missing and have not been found, and six were tortured but survived.

The victims included a Serb family, 12-year-old Aleksandra Zec and her two parents, who were killed by the unit in Zagreb in December 1991.

Although members of Mercep’s unit were arrested soon after the killings, in 1992, they were released later due to procedural issues, although they admitted the crimes.