MAIN HEARING IN CASE AGAINST NEKIC AND STIPIC ENDS

ZADAR, Nov 3 (Hina) - The main hearing in a court proceedings against former head of Zadar's Constitutional Order Protection Service (SZUP) Joso Nekic and Croatian Armed Forces officer Zeljko Stipic, indicted for helping in the hiding of suspects of war crimes committed in Ahmici, ended in the southern Croatian town of Zadar Friday. Zadar municipal judge Boris Babic said a verdict was to be passed on Tuesday, November 7. The judge also passed a decision that Zeljko Stipic be released from custody. In the closing statement, prosecutor Hrvoje Viskovic remained with the claims that indictees Nekic and Stipic helped Ahmici war crime suspects, while defence attorneys demanded that their clients be acquitted, adding that the indictment was absurd and offensive to the court. Zeljko Stipic is indicted for helping Vlado Cosic, one of the four indictees for war crimes committed in Ahmici, at the time an arrest warrant had not yet been issued after Cosic, nor he was suspected of any war crimes by a state body, Stipic's defence attorney Sanja Ormuz said. Nekic's attorney Milan Petricic said there was no evidence against his clients, adding the claims included in the indictment were petty-political. Four persons suspected of committing war crimes in the central Bosnia-Herzegovina village of Ahmici, in which 116 civilians were murdered, had been hiding under false names in the Zadar region, and Nekic and Stipic are indicted of helping them hide. (hina) it