OSTOJIC: VESELIN MARINOV'S MURDER WILL BE INVESTIGATED BY USKOK

ZAGREB, June 1 (Hina) - Zagreb police director Ranko Ostojic said on Saturday that the Office for the Fight Against Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) would investigate the murder of Veselin Marinov, given that it included elements of organised crime. #L# "Since it is suspected that the murder has elements of organised crime, the processing of which someone is obviously trying to prevent, we have agreed with State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic that the USKOK take over the investigation of this crime," Ostojic told Hina. Ante Nobilo, a defence attorney in the trial of the so-called Zagreb criminal organisation, said yesterday that two weeks ago he had proposed that Marinov testify as a protected witness for the defence in the trial of members of the Zagreb underground. Nobilo also said that Marinov had told him that people close to the mob clan headed by Vjekoslav Slisko, who was murdered last year, were planning his murder. Marinov was killed yesterday afternoon in a Zagreb bar by Vinko Zuljevic Klica, who has turned himself in. Klica has been mentioned in the media as Slisko's close associate. Ostojic said that Marinov's murder showed the legacy that the institutions of the law-based state, particularly police and the State Prosecution, had to deal with. (hina) rml