COURT PRESIDENT APPOINTS ATTORNEYS FOR ZAGREB MOBSTERS

ZAGREB, Oct 17 (Hina) - The Zagreb mobsters, whose attorneys on Monday left the courtroom at the Zagreb County Prison, have been given court-appointed attorneys, the Zagreb County Court said in a statement on Tuesday. #L# Thirteen attorneys, dissatisfied with the decision that their clients be tried at the prison building instead of at the Zagreb County Court, left the courtroom before the trial officially started. Eleven indictees refused to take new attorneys. Since the law provides that indictees must have defence counsels, Zagreb County Court president Miroslav Sumanovic today appointed new attorneys for the Zagreb mobsters. The court statement does not give the names of the new attorneys but it reads that all conditions for the continuation of the trial have been met with today's decision. Along with the statement, the court also issued Sumanovic's answer to claims by the president of the Croatian Bar Association, Ranko Pelicaric, that the trial in prison is inappropriate because it limits the lawfulness of the proceedings and prejudges the suspects' guilt. Sumanovic said that while making the decision on the venue he had "very much taken care about those circumstances." "The decision has passed the test of my common sense and clear conscience. I therefore do not intend to revoke or change it," Sumanovic said in his response to the Bar Association. Of the eighteen Zagreb mobsters, who are on trial, one is at large and one was excluded from the indictment last Friday after he expressed readiness to testify. They are charged with 35 criminal acts committed between 1990 and 2000 including association into a criminal organisation, five murders and four attempted murders, extortion, drug abuse, fraud, robbery, violent behaviour, attacking a policeman and illegal possession of arms. (hina) jn rml