A Croatian lawmaker suspected of ordering the torture and killing of Serb civilians in 1991 during the Serbo-Croat war was detained on war crimes charges Thursday after a parliament commission lifted his parliamentary immunity.

Branimir Glavas, who was expelled from the governing party last year, has denied wrongdoing and accused prosecutors, police and his former party of "fabricating" the two cases against him.

He has not been formally indicted in either case, as the investigations are still under way, but prosecutors demanded his detention because of his possible influence on witnesses and the gravity of the charges.

He surrendered hours after a parliament commission lifted his immunity and arrived Thursday night at the Zagreb Remetinec prison.

In one case, Glavas is accused of ordering the 1991 killing of two Serbs and the torture of three others in Osijek, where he was considered a warlord at the time. In the other, he is accused of ordering the killing of Serb civilians in Osijek, whose bodies were then dumped into the local river with their hands tied and mouths covered with tape.

The case illustrates Croatia's willingness to prosecute alleged war crimes committed by its own people, after long insisting that Croats were the sole victims in the war.

Several Croatian soldiers and military policemen have been sentenced for war crimes in the past few years. An impartial judiciary is also a key condition for Croatia's bid to join the European Union.

Critics, however, accuse the government of approving Glavas's prosecution only because he was expelled from the governing party after a row with Prime Minister Ivo Sanader. They say if he had remained in the Croatian Democratic Union, the cases would have been dropped.

Glavas has since formed his own party, which won local elections in eastern Croatia last year. He also kept his parliament seat, now as an independent.

Asked earlier Thursday in Osijek if he has a message for Sanader, Glavas said: "Yes, I'll see him in the (parliamentary) election," due in a year.

The war erupted when minority Serbs took up arms to rebel against Croatia's independence from the former Yugoslavia and ended only in 1995. Some war veterans have protested Glavas's prosecution, insisting that he was a brave fighter against Serb rebels.

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