PROSECUTION REQUESTS RE-TRIAL OF 'CRIMINAL ORGANISATION'

ZAGREB, May 2 (Hina) - The Zagreb County Prosecution has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court contesting the Zagreb County Court's acquittal of Nikica Jelavic and eleven other indictees charged with conspiracy to commit criminal acts. #L# "The prosecution objected that the trial failed to fully establish the facts, and to the duration of the sentences," the Zagreb County Court judge who passed the non-final ruling, Ratko Scekic, told Hina on Friday. The trial, dubbed the trial of the decade, ended last November. Apart from being acquitted on the count of conspiracy to commit criminal acts, the group was also acquitted on all other counts in the indictment. Only five were found guilty of selling drugs and attempt to commit murder or some other individual act of crime. Stressing that during the lengthy trial the court had incompletely and wrongly established facts based on which it passed its ruling, the prosecution has contested almost the entire ruling and sought a re-trial for almost all crimes allegedly committed by the criminal group. The prosecution further says that the court imposed too lenient sentences on the suspected mobsters indicted for the trafficking of narcotics without considering all circumstances. (hina) lml sb