IDENTITY OF PERSON TO BE EXTRADITED TO CROATIA STILL A MYSTERY

BUDAPEST, Sept 25 (Hina) - Croatia has still not received confirmation that the person incarcerated in Zenica, whose extradition to Croatia has been announced by the Bosnian Muslim- Croat Federation, is Hasan al Sharif, a suspect in a Rijeka car- bombing six years ago, the head of the Croatian Interior Ministry's department for international police cooperation, Zoran Nekic, said in Budapest Tuesday, where he is attending the 70th Interpol general assembly. "We have not yet received the Federation's Interior Ministry's confirmation of the Zenica prisoner's identity," Nekic said, adding a request for confirming his identity has been sent to a number of countries, among them Syria, Egypt and Jordan, but no answer has been forthcoming. "Al Sharif is the only Islamist terrorist wanted by the Republic of Croatia," he explained. The Bosnian Muslim-Croat Federation authorities had arrested Abdulah Essindar a.k.a. Hasan al Sharif, an Egyptian connected to the car-bomb terrorist attack in Rijeka, on July 12 this year. In August, the Croatian Interior Ministry requested his identity be established, and last week, federal Interior Minister Muhamed Besic announced a person was to be extradited to Croatia, without disclosing his name. In the car-bomb explosion in front of the Rijeka police headquarters on October 20, 1995, one of the terrorists was killed, two persons gravely wounded, and 20 people injured. (hina) js