ZAGREB, March 30 (Hina) - A five-member panel of judges of the Croatian Supreme Court on Tuesday considered appeals of Fikret Abdic whom the Karlovac County Court last year sentenced to 20 years in prison for war crimes committed in
his self-styled Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia from 1993 to 1995.
ZAGREB, March 30 (Hina) - A five-member panel of judges of the Croatian
Supreme Court on Tuesday considered appeals of Fikret Abdic whom the
Karlovac County Court last year sentenced to 20 years in prison for
war crimes committed in his self-styled Autonomous Province of Western
Bosnia from 1993 to 1995.#L#
The Supreme Court will subsequently decide whether to accept or quash
the appeals and announce its decision on its web site.
The defence claims that the trial procedure was violated and that the
facts were incorrectly established. It insists on the annulment of the
Karlovac Count Court verdict and a retrial, or on their client's
acquittal.
Supreme Court judge Hajrija Novoselec informed the judges of main
elements of the Abdic trial.
In late June 2003 the Karlovac County Court found him guilty of
proclaiming the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia contrary to the
Constitution of Bosnia-Herzegovina. He was found guilty of ordering
and masterminding, in his capacity as the supreme commander of that
province, the establishment of concentration camps for opponents of
his state.
After the first-instance court's ruling, both Abdic's lawyers and
Abdic himself lodged appeals against the ruling. The prosecution
believes that their appeals are groundless and that the Karlovac court
made a correct ruling.
Abdic insists that his trial was politically motivated and initiated
by Alija Izetbegovic, the late president of Bosnia-Herzegovina and
leader of the Muslim-dominated Party of Democratic Action (SDA).
His lawyers said that the case was transferred to Croatian judiciary
unlawfully. The indictment against Abdic was issued by the
prosecutors' office in the western Bosnian town of Bihac in August
1996, and in compliance with a decision by the Croatian Supreme Court,
the Karlovac County Court took over the case under a 1996 agreement on
legal assistance between the two countries. Abdic's lawyers say that
the transfer to the Croatian court was carried out without the
necessary approval of the indictee.
(Hina) ms sb