MUSLIM WHO KILLED BOSNIAN CROAT FAMILY LAST X-MAS ON TRIAL MONDAY

MOSTAR, March 8 (Hina) - A Bosnian Muslim who killed three members of a Bosnian Croat family last Christmas Eve will be put on trial at the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton court on Monday, the court announced on Saturday. The Muamer Topalovic trial will be presided by Judge Hamo Kebo. Topalovic told police after being arrested his motives for killing the three Croat Catholics had been "ideological-religious". The press has reported Topalovic was a follower of Vehabi, a radical form of Islam originating from Saudi Arabia which does not recognise the existence of non-Islamic faiths. Past police records linked Topalovic to the Gamal el Furkan Islamic humanitarian organisation, whose activity in Bosnia was banned at the request of the U.S. administration due to suspicion of collaboration with Al Qaeda. Topalovic is also claimed to have been a member of the Active Islamic Youth in Bosnia. Arriving in Bosnia a little over a year ago from Serbia, where had spent two years in local prisons, he said he had gone to Serbia to kill Slobodan Milosevic but that his plan had been discovered. After the Christmas Eve killings, Topalovic's parents publicly renounced him. (hina) ha