Prosecutor: Horvatinčić should report his alleged state of syncope to doctors

During the trial of Tomislav Horvatinčić at the Šibenik Municipal Court, regarding the maritime accident in August 2011 that resulted in the deaths of Italian citizens Francisco and Marinella Salpietro, a psychiatric expert opinion was presented on Monday, stating that Horvatinčić does not suffer from mental illness and is not dependent on alcohol or any psychoactive substance, related to the question of his sanity at the time of the accident.

The opinion was presented by Dr. Nadica Buzina from the Department of Forensic Psychiatry of the Zagreb Clinical Hospital Vrapče. The psychiatric evaluation of Horvatinčić, which was ordered at the last hearing in the spring of this year by the president of the court panel Maja Šupe, was conducted between June 30 and July 5 at the Institute for Forensic and Psychiatric Medicine in Vrapče, where Horvatinčić was examined three times after reviewing the court file.

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‘In relation to the court’s question regarding the assessment of his sanity at the time of the act, we provide an alternative opinion that primarily relates to the fact of whether the examinee was diagnosed with a state of syncope, given that no other serious psychiatric disorder was diagnosed. If syncope were diagnosed, and the assessment is not provided by a psychiatrist, his volitional and intellectual abilities would be diminished because a person in syncope is not aware and thus lacks such abilities. If syncope were not established, in a narrower psychiatric sense, there are no elements based on which the examinee’s abilities to understand the meaning of the act and to control his will would be diminished in any sense,’ said forensic psychologist Buzina, among other things.

Court expert Vesna Šerić stated today that she maintains her previous opinion that there was a possibility of syncope occurring at the time of the accident. However, she added, since she was not at the scene when the accident occurred, she cannot speak with one hundred percent certainty about that state of loss of consciousness, which can last from a few seconds to a minute.

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Šerić noted that syncope can occur after prolonged standing in one position, in a state of dehydration, isolation, or exposure to the sun, but not when a person is sitting, as that would not be syncope but rather a collapse or loss of consciousness for some other reason.

‘I have never been on a boat, so I do not know what it looks like there,’ said expert Šerić, from whom the judge requested to speak in the context of the accident during which Horvatinčić was sitting on his yacht, which crashed into the sailboat of the Italian couple.

Today’s trial also proceeded with certain disagreements between Judge Maja Šupe and prosecutor Irene Senečić from the Šibenik County State Attorney’s Office, who complained that she was being interrupted and told what would be dictated into the court file. At one point, the judge complained that she could not hear what the expert was saying, so she requested that a microphone be provided for her.

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Prosecutor Senečić asked expert Buzina whether her evaluation of the defendant’s sanity was even necessary in this trial. After reviewing the case, the expert replied, I believe it was not necessary.

To Horvatinčić’s lawyer Branko Baica, who asked the expert what she would have answered if that question had been posed before reviewing the documentation, she said that her answer would have been different then. Prosecutor Senečić suggested that the defense is clearly going for the insanity of the accused Horvatinčić, which caused dissatisfaction from the judge. Justifying herself, the prosecutor said she was ‘thinking rhetorically,’ to which Judge Šupe replied that she too ‘rhetorically wonders’ whether a new indictment should be raised against an insane person?

Senečić replied to her – ‘I know why I am asking that question,’ and then the judge turned to the journalists saying: ‘The son of the deceased Italians says this is a circus, that the Croatian judiciary is a circus, and I would like you to say this is not a circus, no joke, but that we are doing serious work here and trying to establish facts in a valid way so that this court panel can make a decision! And not to talk about the Croatian judiciary and that Judge Šupe is running a circus,’ said the judge.

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At the continuation of the hearing, the judge rejected the repeated proposal of the prosecution to examine court expert Jurica Pešo and to include a sketch that Horvatinčić drew after the accident in the file, but agreed to provide the defendant’s misdemeanor record, as well as records of his driver’s license and medical examinations for the license.

Namely, the prosecutor believes that Horvatinčić, who has since had his driver’s license returned, which was revoked as a temporary measure by the court after the accident for two years, should report his alleged state of syncope to doctors. ‘He drives vehicles after the accident, and he has syncope. Given his condition, he should obtain a new medical certificate. Has his new health condition even been reported? If the accused defends himself with a state of syncope in which he suddenly loses consciousness, he should report that he can lose consciousness while driving,’ said prosecutor Senečić. Tomislav Horvatinčić will present his defense on Wednesday, when the closing statements of the prosecution and defense will also be made in the retrial for causing a maritime accident near Primošten, where the Zagreb entrepreneur crashed his speedboat into an Italian sailboat, resulting in the deaths of two people.

After that, the verdict of the Šibenik Municipal Court panel will be known, which in November 2015 sentenced Horvatinčić to one year and eight months in prison conditionally, for three years, with an obligation to pay around 167 thousand kuna in court costs.