JUDGES URGE ESTABLISHING IF SISAK JUDGE DETAINED REPORTERS

ZAGREB, August 9 (Hina) - The Association of Croatian Judges (UHS) demands that it be ascertained whether the president of the Sisak County Court, Judge Danko Kovac, unlawfully detained reporters and did not allow them to conduct their work. If this proves to be so, the UHS urges that he be liable to the most serious punishment. #L# The president of the UHS, Vladimir Gredelj, told Hina on Friday the UHS was astounded by the behaviour of Judge Kovac, who detained reporters in his chambers two days ago for two hours. Mato Piskor from Jutarnji list daily, Zeljko Maljevac from Novi sisacki tjednik weekly, and Boris Pavelic from Novi list daily were detained in Judge Kovac's chambers while trying to obtain a statement relating to possible war crimes committed in Sisak in 1991. When a judge, whose constitutional obligation is to care for fundamental human rights and the highest values of the legal order, himself attacks the values of true democracy, then it is not enough to express concern, Gredelj said. Matters like this destroy any trust in the system by citizens, which is tantamount to crime, he added. He said the UHS expressed its solidarity with the bitterness felt by journalists and the Croatian public, and aligned with demands by the Croatian Helsinki Committee on Human Rights, the Croatian Association of Journalists, and the Corps of Court Reporters that the case be urgently investigated and appropriate sanctions applied. The UHS demands that the political responsibility of Justice Minister Ingrid Anticevic-Marinovic be examined as well, as she appointed Kovac as the president of the Sisak County Court despite a contrary opinion by the judicial council who did not give him even one vote for that office, said Gredelj. (hina) sp ha