SECOND ATTORNEY FOR DINKO SAKIC APPEALS SENTENCE

ZAGREB, Mar 13 (Hina) - The second attorney for Dinko Sakic, a former commander of the Ustashi concentration camp Jasenovac, on Monday appealed against the 20-year imprisonment sentence the Zagreb County Court had imposed on Sakic. The appeal will be dealt with by the Supreme Court. In a 35-page document, attorney Ivan Kern presents arguments which make him believe that the Penal Code had been considerably violated during Sakic's trial due to wrongly established circumstances. According to Kern, the prosecutor failed to draw up the indictment in line with the powers he had according to the act on hand-over. Commenting on the witnesses' testimonies and documents presented at the trial, Kern said the Trial Chamber had failed to eliminate all doubts regarding the testimonies, and had therefore unnecessarily rejected the possibility of confronting the witnesses, whose testimonies were contradictory in important segments. Kern suggested that the Supreme Court should annul the sentence of the court of the first instance and order a new trial before a new trial chamber or that the sentence be significantly reduced. Last week, attorney Branko Seric, who had joined Sakic's defence later, also appealed the sentence of the Zagreb County Court. (hina) rml