ZAGREB, April 8 (Hina) - The Zagreb County Court on Tuesday denied an appeal against detention of Ivica Rajic, arrested Saturday. Rajic was a commander of the Bosnian Croat Defence Council (HVO) whom the Hague-based UN tribunal (ICTY)
accused of war crimes in the central Bosnian village of Stupni Do in 1993.
ZAGREB, April 8 (Hina) - The Zagreb County Court on Tuesday denied
an appeal against detention of Ivica Rajic, arrested Saturday.
Rajic was a commander of the Bosnian Croat Defence Council (HVO)
whom the Hague-based UN tribunal (ICTY) accused of war crimes in the
central Bosnian village of Stupni Do in 1993. #L#
The court's president, Bozidar Rumenjak, told Hina today that a
panel of judges earlier in the day denied the appeal by Rajic's
attorneys against the extradition detention their client had been
ordered by an investigating judge.
One of the attorneys, Zeljko Olujic, said he would today officially
ask of the government's office for cooperation with the ICTY to have
the process held in Croatia not in The Hague.
Olujic claims there are no legal obstacles in Croatia and the
decision on the venue rests with the Hague tribunal.
The lawyer said that during talks he held with his client in
detention, Rajic had told him he had been arrested in Split, not in
Zagreb as Olujic had told the media a day after the apprehension.
"My client told me that criminal police in civilian clothes nabbed
him in Split and then transferred him to Zagreb," Olujic said.
He did not state the details of the arrest, which, according to
media speculations, is a result of tracking down another Hague
indictee, Ante Gotovina.
He added that the defence had not yet decided whether to appeal to
the Supreme Court if the Zagreb County Court complied with the
request to hand Rajic over to the ICTY.
The defence has eight days for filing a complaint to the Supreme
Court. The complaint would put off the extradition, but if the
Supreme Court allows the extradition, this ruling is final.
Only an appeal to the Constitutional Court can be filed against this
ruling, but this would not delay the extradition. The extradition
can only be temporarily deferred by the justice minister in the case
of the defendant's illness or "some other justified reason".
Rajic has been indicted as commanding officer of the second
operational group of the (HVO) from Kiseljak for being responsible
for the killing of at least 16 Muslim civilians in the village of
Stupni Do in October of 1993.
(hina) lml sb