ZAGREB, May 5 (Hina) - An attorney for Ivica Rajic, an indictee of the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, has said that he will file an appeal with the Supreme Court challenging last week's decision of the Zagreb County Court to
approve Rajic's transfer to The Hague.
ZAGREB, May 5 (Hina) - An attorney for Ivica Rajic, an indictee of
the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, has said that he will file
an appeal with the Supreme Court challenging last week's decision
of the Zagreb County Court to approve Rajic's transfer to The Hague.
#L#
"I will lodge an appeal with the Supreme Court today because the
County Court failed to fully establish founded suspicion and the
level of probability that Rajic committed the criminal act he is
charged with by The Hague-based court," Zeljko Olujic told Hina.
Along with lack of any evidence about Rajic having committed war
crimes, Olujic will appeal against "a series of procedural
errors".
The Zagreb County Court on April 30 approved Rajic's transfer to The
Hague, one day after he pleaded not guilty and his attorney Olujic
objected to his extradition.
The court established that Rajic was the person wanted by the
tribunal 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
transfer.
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 at least 16 Bosnian
Muslim civilians in central Bosnia's Stupni Do on both command and
individual responsibility.
(hina) rml sb