Fieschi: Cooperation with Croatia was excellent

The French Ambassador to Croatia said on Thursday that a French judge had requested cooperation with Croatia and Serbia in the investigation into the murder of Jean-Michel Nicolier.

French Ambassador to Croatia Fabien Fieschi told reports on Thursday that cooperation between the French judge looking into the murder of Jean-Michel Nicolier and Croatian institutions had been excellent, but he declined to comment on the level of cooperation with Serbian authorities.

After Thursday’s funeral for Nicolier, a French volunteer killed in Vukovar in 1991, journalists asked Ambassador Fieschi what France could do to prosecute the war crime against Nicolier compared to what Croatia had already done: “I can tell you that Jean-Michel Nicolier's family initiated proceedings in France several years ago. An independent judge has been appointed and has already sent several requests for cooperation, both to Croatia and to the judiciary in Serbia. Investigators and members of the French police were in Croatia in September and came back after the body was found and identified to cooperate with the Croatian judiciary and collect all the evidence that the Croatian judiciary found. Now they will take this evidence to France.”

The ambassador emphasized that he had received information directly from the French team that had visited Croatia, and that they characterized the cooperation with the Croatian judiciary and administration as excellent.

Asked if he thought cooperation with Serbia was possible given that this had not been the case to date, Fieschi reiterated that the judge had already submitted several requests for cooperation with the Serbian authorities: “I can't tell you what the next step will be. She is independent, she will decide.”

Commenting on Jean-Michel’s funeral today, following a 34 year search for his remains, the French ambassador called it a day of sadness, but also of peace and comfort for Nicolier's family: “Jean-Michel Nicolier finally received a dignified burial in the city he decided to stay and defend until the very end, and his family finally has a place to grieve. Jean-Michel Nicolier chose to fight for Croatia, but he was French, and France does not forget its children.”

Fieschi concluded by thanking the Croatian authorities for finding and identifying his remains and for organizing a dignified funeral in Vukovar as per his family’s request.

Source: HRT