DEFENCE LAWYERS FOR TWO CROATIAN GENERALS SURPRISED WITH TRIBUNAL'S DECISION

ZAGREB, April 30 (Hina) - Defence attorneys for retired Croatian generals Mladen Markac and Ivan Cermak said on Friday they were surprised by the decision of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague to reject their requests for provisional release before their clients are interviewed by prosecutors.#L# Carmak's lawyer Cedo Prodanovic and Goran Mikulicic, who represents Markac, told Hina they were surprised by the decision because they believed that all the conditions for the provisional release of the two generals had been met. Prodanovic said that interviews with prosecutors could be damaging to the accused because they would be put in a situation to present their defence before they became acquainted with all the evidence. He added that the accused had already talked to prosecutors during the investigation. A decision on whether the generals would talk to the prosecutors would be rendered next week after the defence attorneys talk to their clients in The Hague. The two lawyers said they had no information as to when the generals might be interviewed by the prosecutors. "That's the Hague tribunal. It creates its own rules and precedents," Mikulicic said, adding that commenting on the court decision was a thankless task. Mikulicic said he would meet the accused next Thursday to show them new documents used by the prosecution to corroborate the charges. After talking to their clients, the defence attorneys will try to contact the prosecution. Mikulicic said that the defence would certainly file a new request for provisional release, but "from a new position and with new facts". Since the Netherlands was observing a national holiday, Queen's Day, on Friday, no one was available at the tribunal for comment on the rejection of the request for provisional release. (Hina) vm