FIRST SECTION
Application no. 12986/13
Stoja TRIVKANOVIĆ
against Croatia
lodged on 21 January 2013
STATEMENT OF FACTS
The applicant, Ms Stoja Trivkanović, is a Croatian national, who was born in 1950 and lives in Sisak. She is represented before the Court by Mr L. Šušak, a lawyer practising in Zagreb.
The circumstances of the case
The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicant, may be summarised as follows.
On 25 August 1991 members of the Croatian Army entered the house of the applicant’s son Z.T., beaten up Z.T and his wife D. They abducted Z.T., the applicant’s second son B.T. and her husband N.T. On 28 August 1991 the body of N.T. was found in the river Sava and the autopsy showed that he had been shot at by firearms and thus killed. Z.T. and B.T. disappeared.
The applicant lodged a criminal complaint in connection with the above-described events on 2 June 2006.
Further to this, on 27 April 2007 the Serbian Community in Croatia lodged a criminal complaint with the Sisak State Attorney’s Office in connection with the killing of six hundred civilians of Serbian ethnic origin in 1991 and 1992 in the territory of Sisak.
On 16 December 2011 the Osijek County State Attorney’s Office brought an indictment in the Osijek County Court against V.M and D.B., on charges of war crimes against the civilian population, which included the killing and disappearance of the applicant’s sons and husband.
The proceedings are still pending.
COMPLAINTS
The applicant complains that the application of the criminal law mechanisms in connection with death and disappearance of her close relatives has not complied with the procedural requirements under Articles 2 and 14 of the Convention.
QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES
1. Having regard to the procedural protection of the right to life (see paragraph 104 of Salman v. Turkey [GC], no. 21986/93, ECHR 2000-VII), was the investigation in the present case by the domestic authorities in breach of Article 2 of the Convention?
2. Have the relevant authorities complied with their procedural obligation under Article 14 of the Convention to investigate whether there was any motive behind the applicant’s relatives’ abduction and killing that might be related to their Serbian origin (see Šečić v. Croatia, no. 40116/02, § 66, ECHR 2007‑VI)?
The Government are invited to submit copies of all case files and other documents concerning the disappearance and killing of the applicant’s close relatives.
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