ZAGREB COURT OKAYS RAJIC'S EXTRADITION TO HAGUE

ZAGREB, Apr 30 (Hina) - Zagreb's county court on Wednesday approved the extradition of Ivica Rajic to the Hague tribunal which charges him with the massacre of at least 16 Bosnian Muslim civilians in Stupni Do in 1993. #L# "The court has granted the Hague tribunal's request from December 1995 and allowed the handover of the defendant to the tribunal for a war crimes trial," Zagreb county court president Bozidar Rumenjak told Hina. A three-member panel of judges opted for the extradition after yesterday's session at which Rajic denied his guilt and one of his attorneys objected to the extradition. The panel accepted the assessment by Zagreb county's deputy state prosecutor Ivan Plevak that all conditions for the handover had been met. The panel ascertained that Rajic was the person wanted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal at The Hague and that he was charged with crimes within the tribunal's jurisdiction. Both these factors, under Croatia's constitutional law on cooperation with the tribunal, are sufficient for approving extradition. Rajic's attorneys have eight days to appeal to the Supreme Court, during which time Rajic cannot be extradited. The decision of the five-member Supreme Court panel is final. Rajic's defence may file a constitutional complaint but it does not stay the extradition. The extradition may temporarily be postponed by the justice minister on account of the defendant's illness or some "other particularly justified reason". Rajic is accused of the October 1993 murder of 16 Bosnian Muslim civilians in central Bosnia's Stupni Do on both command and individual responsibility. The indictment was issued in 1995 but Rajic was arrested only this month in Split. (hina) ha