ZAGREB, Sept 20 (Hina) - The arrest of the Croat Defence Council's (HVO) General Ivan Andabak on suspicion that he was implicated in drug smuggling is just a pretext, while it is waiting for the Hague Tribunal to decide what will be
done with him, Andabak's defence counsel Kresimir Krsnik told reporters on Wednesday. Lawyer Krsnik claimed that the latest statement of Jacques Klein, the head of the UN mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and media misinformation about Andabak served for destabilisation of the Croat people ahead of elections in Bosnia. Citing the chronology of events connected with Andabak's apprehension, Krsnik said that on Sunday (September 10) investigators of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) had been spotted in Zagreb, and now "it is obvious that they came as they knew that Andabak would be nabbed." Andabak was arrested two da
ZAGREB, Sept 20 (Hina) - The arrest of the Croat Defence Council's
(HVO) General Ivan Andabak on suspicion that he was implicated in
drug smuggling is just a pretext, while it is waiting for the Hague
Tribunal to decide what will be done with him, Andabak's defence
counsel Kresimir Krsnik told reporters on Wednesday.
Lawyer Krsnik claimed that the latest statement of Jacques Klein,
the head of the UN mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and media
misinformation about Andabak served for destabilisation of the
Croat people ahead of elections in Bosnia.
Citing the chronology of events connected with Andabak's
apprehension, Krsnik said that on Sunday (September 10)
investigators of the International Criminal Tribunal for former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) had been spotted in Zagreb, and now "it is obvious
that they came as they knew that Andabak would be nabbed." Andabak
was arrested two days after, at about 08.00 am Tuesday, and was
taken to the ICTY investigators with whom he spent almost the entire
day, Krsnik claimed.
As he was in a diabetic coma, Andabak cannot remember details but
what he recollects is that he was taken to the Zagreb-based office
of the ICTY Prosecution. In the evening that day he was told that he
would be transferred to Rijeka but he was not yet informed of
reasons for such a move, the lawyer told reporters adding that he
did not know whether he was questioned by the ICTY investigators as
a witness or a suspect.
"It is clear to the defence that charges about drug trafficking are
just a mask until a decision is made on what will be done with
General Andabak at the ICTY," the lawyer assessed.
Krsnik said those were lies that Andabak had been nabbed on the
grounds of statements by Mladen Naletilic alias Tuta, an ICTY
suspect awaiting trial in The Hague, or that Andabak gave useful
information to the Tribunal.
Naletilic, who was the commander of the notorious Convicts'
Battalion, is charged with war crimes he allegedly committed in the
Mostar area (southern Bosnia). Andabak was the battalion's deputy
commander.
The defence believes that the target of recent moves has been the
destabilisation of the Croat people ahead of the November ballot,
Krsnik added.
For him, this is confirmed by "the anti-Croatian statement" given
by Klein who on Tuesday evening said Andabak was a prime suspect for
the 1999 assassination of Jozo Leutar, Deputy Interior Minister of
the Bosnian Croat-Moslem Federation, and who claimed that an
investigation in this case would have been more efficacious if
Bosnian Croat officials had not obstructed the efforts aimed at
finding Leutar's assassin.
Krsnik announced he would file a suit against the US diplomat for
"slander on Andabak".
Krsnik dismissed allegations that his client had been implicated in
Leutar's killing, stressing that Andabak had not been in Bosnia-
Herzegovina for the past two years.
(hina) ms