SIBENIK, Oct 3 (Hina) - The municipal state prosecutor's office in Sibenik on Thursday requested the State Judicial Council to strip of immunity Judge Slavko Lozina from Split so that he might be charged with a hit-and-run
accident.
SIBENIK, Oct 3 (Hina) - The municipal state prosecutor's office in
Sibenik on Thursday requested the State Judicial Council to strip
of immunity Judge Slavko Lozina from Split so that he might be
charged with a hit-and-run accident. #L#
The Sibenik office accuses Lozina of having caused in Split on April
14 a traffic accident and running away without helping the gravely
injured Djovani de Micheli Vitturi of Split. The maximum penalty
for this crime is a five-year imprisonment.
Split's traffic police had pressed charges against Lozina but in
late July the Supreme Court okayed a proposal by the chief of the
Split County Court's investigative centre, Ivan Bartulovic, about
a change of jurisdiction due to the fact that Lozina is a judge with
the Split County Court. The case was transferred to the Sibenik
County Court.
Talking to the media, Lozina admitted that the accident had indeed
occurred but denied that he was responsible.
Lozina is known to the wider public as the judge presiding the trial
of eight men accused of war crimes committed at Split's Lora prison
in 1992. Some non-governmental organisations have voiced on
several occasions their discontent at Lozina's conduct and
presiding of the trial.
Justice Minister Ingrid Anticevic-Marinovic and Supreme Court
president Ivica Crnic recently requested Split County Court
president Igor Benzon to voice his opinion regarding Lozina's
failure to file documents relating to the Lora trial and his
inappropriate behaviour at a recent concert by pop singer Marko
Perkovic Thompson.
Benzon said that neither case had yielded elements which would call
for disciplinary proceedings or exempting Lozina from the Lora
trial. Unhappy with this response, the justice minister requested
additional explanations.
(hina) ha sb