JUSTICE MINISTRY RECEIVES HAGUE INDICTMENTS

ZAGREB, July 11 (Hina) - The Croatian Ministry of Justice confirmed on Wednesday having received a request and indictments of the International Criminal Court for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) against two Croatian citizens. The ministry has not yet forwarded the indictments to competent courts, which, as speculated within official judicial circles, leaves room for indictees to approach the Hague Tribunal on their own. There is no deadline by which the ministry must forward the ICTY's requests to the competent courts, even though under the ICTY Statute, all tribunal's decisions should be acted upon in the shortest time possible. The unexplained hold-up of the indictments could be of purely judicial or political nature, official judicial circles estimate. From the political point of view, this may mean that a closed-door parliamentary discussion about the secret Hague indictments, scheduled for this Thursday or Friday, along with this Sunday's vote on confidence in the government, could strengthen the government's status which has been weakened by its positive response to the ICTY's requests. Should the government receive a vote of confidence, the procedure according to the Hague indictments continues on Monday in conditions which would be more favourable for the government. This procedure could also take place before the closed-door session, in the course of this week, once the indictments are forwarded to the indictees, after which they will no longer be secret. Judicial circles assume the legal reasons for the hold-up of the indictments could be the wish to give the indictees time to go to The Hague of their own accord, primarily to general Rahim Ademi, who the media believe is one of the indictees and who has expressed readiness to voluntarily approach the Hague Tribunal. If so, the hand-over in line with the Constitutional Law on Co- operation with the ICTY is no longer required, and the indictees could possibly have better legal treatment. (hina) np rml