RAJIC'S EXTRADITION IN JURISDICTION OF ZAGREB COUNTY COURT

ZAGREB, April 22 (Hina) - Croatian Supreme Court president Ivica Crnic has decided that the Zagreb County Court should conduct proceedings for the transfer of Ivica Rajic to the Hague-based international war crimes tribunal, which has indicted the Bosnian Croat for war crimes committed in Stupni Do, Bosnia, in 1993. #L# The Zagreb County Court was set as venue for the process because it was impossible to establish Rajic's place of residence, the Supreme Court said in a statement Tuesday. Since the court has already started some proceedings in this particular case, the Hague-based tribunal asked that the court conduct the extradition process, the statement reads. After Rajic was arrested in Zagreb on April 7, the Zagreb County Court forwarded a motion to the Supreme Court that it decide which county court would conduct the process. One of Rajic's defence attorneys, Zeljko Olujic, told Hina that he had expected such a decision by the Supreme Court, since it was at the Supreme Court president's discretion to delegate a competent court. Olujic believes that a session of the trial chamber on the tribunal's request for Rajic's extradition could take place at the end of next week. He reiterated earlier announcements that the defence would object to Rajic's extradition. "Based on the Constitution, the constitutional law on cooperation with the international tribunal and the Law on Criminal Proceedings, there are sufficient elements for Rajic to be tried in Croatia," Olujic said. Rajic was apprehended based on the tribunal's international arrest warrant. The tribunal indicted Rajic eight years ago for being responsible, as commander of the second operative group of the Bosnian Croat Defence Council (HVO) from Kiseljak, for the killing of at least 16 Muslim civilians in the central Bosnian village of Stupni Do in October 1993. (hina) lml