ZAGREB, Sept 13 (Hina) - A request for an investigation of five suspects brought before the investigating judge in Gospic on Wednesday is not related to the Milan Levar assassination but war crimes against civilians, the defence
attorney of one of the suspects said.
ZAGREB, Sept 13 (Hina) - A request for an investigation of five
suspects brought before the investigating judge in Gospic on
Wednesday is not related to the Milan Levar assassination but war
crimes against civilians, the defence attorney of one of the
suspects said.#L#
Attorney Zeljko Dumancic is defending General Tihomir Oreskovic,
whom Levar, killed in an August 28 car-bomb blast, accused of war
crimes against Serb civilians in Gospic at the beginning of the
Homeland War in a testimony for the International Criminal Tribunal
for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
Because of the accusation, the media linked the Oreskovic arrest
with the Levar assassination.
Speaking to reporters in Gospic, Dumancic said police interrogated
the suspects in connection with Levar and two war crimes against
civilians.
The attorney stressed the probe was not related to the Levar case,
and that "in the main", each of the suspects denied all charges
against them.
Unofficial reports say the Oreskovic case will be taken by the State
Prosecutor's Office in the northern Adriatic town of Rijeka.
Alongside the Gospic residents who gathered in front of the central
town's County Court was a European Monitoring Mission team.
Some media speculations on the reasons behind the arrests have
proved incorrect.
The state television said in its evening news Croatian Army General
Ivan Andabak was arrested yesterday on suspicion that he had been
involved in the smuggling of 600 kg of cocaine. Earlier reports
speculated he had been arrested in connection with a request from
the war crimes tribunal in The Hague that he testify. Formerly a
close associate of tribunal indictee Mladen "Tuta" Naletilic,
Andabak failed to comply with the request.
Quoting reliable sources, the state television tonight also said
that Brigadier Ignac Kostroman had not been put under arrest. It was
reported yesterday that he had been arrested in Knin, central
Croatia. Kostroman was a close associate of Dario Kordic, a Bosnian
Croat currently on trial in The Hague.
(hina) ha jn