The first interior minister of Croatia and the former chief of OZNA in Karlovac, Josip Boljkovac, 89, was arrested in Velika Gorica near Karlovac on Nov. 2, on suspicion of having committed a war crime against the civilian population in the Karlovac area, in May 1945.

The Croatian Interior Ministry stated that Josip Boljkovac was arrested over a suspicion that he had ordered the killing of civilians in May 1945, in the area of Duga Resa.

"Under his command, members of the 3rd Company of the 1st Croatian Brigade of the Corps of People's Defense of Yugoslavia, which were under his command, shot and killed seven persons at the location of Vidanka-Curak, whose identity has been established, and 14 other who have not yet been identified," the Interior Ministry stated.

The investigating judge of the Zagreb District Court ordered month-long custody for Boljkovac, because of the particularly grave circumstances of the crime he is charged with.

Boljkovac told the investigating judge that he was not guilty of war crimes against civilians World War II.

His lawyer Anto Nobilo told reporters that Boljkovac is suspected on command responsibility of the war crime of a Montenegrin unit of the Corps of People's Defense from May 1945, in the area of Duga Resa, Croatia.

He said that this was a new case, with no connection to the earlier investigation of the Dubovac camp in Karlovac, and that this investigation was a disgrace.