WITNESS IN TRIAL OF ZAGREB MOB CHANGES ORIGINAL STATEMENT

ZAGREB, Dec 19 (Hina) - In continuation of the trial against Zagreb mobsters on Tuesday, witness Dragan Simag said he knew nothing about the criminal acts the indictees were charged with, which contradicts his statement given during investigative proceedings in May this year. Thirteen suspects are on trial for aligning into a criminal organisation, murder, racketeering and other crimes. The fourteenth indictee is currently on the run. Simag, who is imprisoned at Zagreb's county prison of Remetinec for a traffic accident, said he knew nothing about the criminal organisation, attempted murders of Zeljko Sobot and Vjeko Slisko or a failed murder attempt against Slisko, in which a passer-by was killed. Simag said he had heard about it from the press. The witness said he knew indictees Tvrtko Tomicic, Miljenko Zaja, Miroslav Vukovic and Nikica Jelavic only superficially. He does not know what Tomicic, Zaja and Petrovic did for a living and he heard that Vukovic owned shops. Speaking about indictee Slisko the witness said he "was into slot-machine business." Speaking about the attempted murder of Zeljko Sobot, Simag said he had not discussed it with Sobot and did not know if Sobot had been involved in interest-mongering, although he claimed the opposite in the investigation. When asked by the prosecution, Simag said he did not remember his statement given during the investigative proceedings, to which the prosecutor said his previous statement was different than the one given today. Asked if he was afraid and if he had been forced to change his statement, Simag answered negatively. After this, Simag's statement given during the investigation was read out. In the statement, Simag claims he stopped seeing Nikica Jelavic after Jelavic started associating with Zlatko Bagaric's men. Bagaric (killed in 1998) gathered around himself all the evil that came to Croatia at the beginning of the war, Simag said in his original statement. He also claimed that Zaja was one of Bagaric's men. Speaking about Petrovic, Simag said he had heard that together with Bagaric Petrovic had made a fortune from cheating people on cards. It is well known that they were involved in crime and shared money but people are afraid to talk about it, Simag said in the original statement. He said he had also heard that Tomicic used to kill people for money. At the end of the statement Simag concluded that "one should take care of all those people because they have connections in the police and can even kill a child if necessary, as not all of them are in prison," and it was therefore better to "keep silent." After his original statement was read out, Simag stated 90 percent of the statement were not his words. The trial resumes tomorrow. (hina) rml