Serbia and Croatia ICJ trial to start in 2014

The trial before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding Croatia’s charges and Serbia’s counter charges of genocide is set to start on March 3, 2014.

All the witnesses will take to the stand over the next month and the two sides will also present their closing arguments, the daily stated, quoting Serbia’s Foreign Ministry.

Peter Tomka of Slovakia will preside of the trial chamber. He has been the president of the court since February 2012.

Croatia filed its charges of genocide related to the war in the early 1990s in 1999, and the International Court of Justice declared its jurisdiction over the issue in 2008.

Serbia filed its counter-suit on January 4, 2009, accusing Croatia of genocide and ethnic cleansing of more than 400,000 Serbs from Croatia during the war in the 1990s.