CROATIA TO REQUEST BOSNIA TO EXTRADITE MIKOLA

ZAGREB, Sept 27 (Hina) - Croatia will request from Bosnia- Herzegovina the extradition of Igor Mikola so that the Pakracka poljana trial in Zagreb, adjourned a year ago, could resume, a source at the Croatian Justice Ministry said on Saturday. #L# Mikola is one of five accused of crimes committed at the Pakrac area plains in 1991. He is currently serving a 27-month prison sentence in the Bosnian town of Zenica for attempted extortion. The Croatian Justice Ministry is preparing a transfer request "for Mikola to serve the imprisonment he was sentenced to in Bosnia in Croatia so as to be available for the trial being held against him at the Zagreb County Court," Zdravko Stojanovic, assistant justice minister for international legal assistance, told Hina today. He added Mikola was being tried in Croatia for crimes much graver than the one he was sentenced for in Bosnia. "The preparation of the transfer request is nearing completion. We are only waiting for Mikola's citizenship certificate to verify that he is a Croatian citizen." Bosnian police arrested Mikola in early October last year. Two weeks later the Pakracka poljana trial in Zagreb was adjourned due to his unavailability. Judge Rajka Tomerlin Almer said at that time that proceedings would resume once data on Mikola's Bosnian trial were collected, which occurred this July. The proceedings in Zagreb are in effect a retrial since the Croatian Supreme Court quashed part of a 1999 acquittal on two counts. In the repeat proceedings, Mikola, Munib Suljic, Sinisa Rimac, Branko Saric, and Miroslav Bajramovic are on trial on one murder charge and for the unlawful abduction of and extortion from three men who were taken from Zagreb to Pakracka poljana in October 1991, where unidentified persons killed them. Although the Pakracka poljana case became public in 1992, an indictment was filed only in December 1997. (hina) ha