SINJ MAYOR INTERVIEWED BY POLICE OVER COMMENT ON VERDICT

SINJ, March 28 (Hina) - Sinj mayor Mate Jukic told Hina on Friday he was questioned by Split-Dalmatia County police earlier in the day in connection with his comment on the guilty verdict in the Gospic Group war crimes trial. He said he told the police nothing he had said in Rijeka broke the law. #L# "The interview was fair and brief. I said I didn't think anything I said in Rijeka breaks the law," said Jukic, adding that "everything about my statement in Rijeka was taken out of context" and that it had been an emotional outburst on his part. "If I am being accused of allegedly commenting on the verdict, then Prime Minister (Ivica) Racan should also be held to account for recently commenting on the sentence and the trial on Split's Lora," said Jukic. The Rijeka municipal state prosecutor today urged police to interrogate Jukic to establish if his statement on television after the Gospic Group trial constituted the criminal act of duress on a judicial official. In the statement Jukic said the sentence was shameful, that winners in a war could not be put on trial, and that it was unheard of for generals and soldiers who had freed their country to be in prison. (hina) ha sb