Guseck, the commander of the naval port, had been charged with the prosecution. He selected 40 personsThe 40 persons are listed by name in Frei, Cattaro, p. 136 f. for the drumhead court martial. He demanded a quick conviction. The trial began on 7 February and must not take longer than three days. The charge was insurrection. The accused were assigned four officers as defence lawyers. The civilian lawyer Dr. Mitrović arrived only at the end of the last day of the trial. After a protest by the defence that the Präklusivfrist (expiration period) had been exceeded, the court declared that it had no jurisdiction over 18 defendants. Fitl criticises that in the event of an actual expiration (which cannot be determined nowadays), this should have applied to all the defendants.Fitl, Cattaro, p. 157. The defence attempted to decline the responsibility of the defendants: compulsion of the circumstances, carried away by the others, fear of artillery fire from "St. Georg", "Gäa", "Monarch".Plaschka/Haselsteiner/Suppan, Innere Front, p. 141-146. An important question was who had used weapons. In the case of the chief officer of the "St. Georg", Zipperer, it could not be clarified beyond doubt neither in the drumhead court martial nor later on in the ordinary court martial whether Šižgorić or Ujdur or both had fired at him.Fitl, Cattaro, p. 89 f. The defence lawyers protested when on the last day of the trial several witnesses who had been summoned were not heard. They also wanted to hear further witnesses in favour of the defendants. The requests were rejected, probably also because the court was under time pressure.Plaschka/Haselsteiner/Suppan, Innere Front, S. 144.
