COUNTY COURT TO DECIDE ON ICTY INDICTEE RAJIC'S EXTRADITION TUESDAY

ZAGREB, April 27 (Hina) - A three-member panel of judges of the Zagreb County Court will hold a session on Tuesday to establish facts relevant for a decision on extraditing Ivica Rajic to the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal. #L# Present at the session of the panel, chaired by Judge Drazen Tripalo, will be lawyers of Rajic, wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and an official of the Croatian state prosecution. Pursuant to Croatia's constitutional law on cooperation with the ICTY, the panel of judges should grant the tribunal's request for the indictee's extradition, if it establishes that the request refers to Rajic and that crimes cited in his indictment are in jurisdiction of the ICTY. There is a possibility that lawyers lodge an appeal against the county court's extradition decision with the Supreme Court within eight days. The lodging of the appeal delays the extradition, and the ruling of the Supreme Court is final. It is also possible to appeal against the Supreme Court's ruling, but this appeal lodged with the Constitutional Court does not withhold the procedure of the handover of the indictee to the UN tribunal. Justice Minister Ingrid Anticevic Marinovic, too, can decide to postpone the extradition on the grounds of poor health of the indictee or for some other specific and justified reason. One of Rajic's lawyers, Zeljko Olujic, has announced appeals against his client's extradition, given that Rajic has expressed wish to be tried in Croatia rather than at The Hague. Ivica Rajic, a commander of local Bosnian Croat (HVO) units in central Bosnia, is held by the ICTY prosecution as responsible for the slaying of at least 16 villagers in Stupni Do near the town of Vares in October 1993 during the Croat-Muslim conflict. The tribunal issued the indictment against him in 1995, but from then until April this year when he was nabbed in Split, Rajic was on the run. (hina) ms