THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, July 2 (Hina) - Milan Martic, a former leader of rebel Serbs in Croatia was on Tuesday assigned a new attorney to represent him in the court, the Hague-based UN Tribunal reported.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, July 2 (Hina) - Milan Martic, a former leader of
rebel Serbs in Croatia was on Tuesday assigned a new attorney to
represent him in the court, the Hague-based UN Tribunal reported.
#L#
The court's secretariat temporarily appointed Dutch attorney Gert-
Jan Knoops to replace Belgrade based Strahinja Kastratovic who
represented Martic during his first appearance in that court.
The secretariat explained its decision to reject Martic's request
to have Kastratovic appointed as his defence attorney with the fact
that he had not cleared or neutralised potential conflicts of
interest.
Belgrade media reported that Kastratovic was present during a
discussion between the Hague investigator and the former deputy of
the State Security Sector in Serbia, Frank Simatovic (Frenki) who
was named in the charges against Slobodan Milosevic for Croatia, as
the person, who along with Martic, participated in creating a plan
of ethnic cleansing in occupied sections of Croatia of the non-
Serbian population.
The secretariat believes that the appointment of Kastratovic as
Martic's defence attorney could threaten the "rights of the accused
as well as the suspect that Kastratovic had represented just
recently".
Martic is accused of shelling Zagreb in 1995.
The Amsterdam attorney, Knoops, was appointed as Martic's defence
attorney for a period of 100 days.
Martic surrendered to The Hague in May and in his first appearance
before the court pleaded not guilty to the charges and announced
that his defence attorney would explain why he ordered the shelling
of Zagreb.
(hina) sp sb