ICTY EXPECTS EXTRADITION OF NALETILIC AND MARTINOVIC

ZAGREB, Jan 5 (Hina) - The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) said on Tuesday it expected that Croatian authorities would give a timely response to the Tribunal's request for the extradition of Mladen Naletilic and Vinko Martinovic, an ICTY spokesman said on Tuesday. Spokesman Jim Landale said that for the time being there was no information about the reaction of Croatian authorities to the request for the extradition of the two indictees, adding that the request, along with the confirmation of charges, was forwarded to Croatia on December 22. We expect from Croatia to respond and deliver the indictees to the ICTY jurisdiction, he said explaining that no deadline had been set for the extradition. Commenting on the information released by a Bosnian official that the ICTY had allowed Bosnian judicial authorities to criminally pursue Fikret Abdic, the ICTY spokesman said the Tribunal had given consent as early as November last year. Izetbegovic decided only now to disclose the information, but last November, in line with an agreement of 1996, the ICTY expressed the stance that evidence presented against Abdic was sufficient for initiating legal proceedings on war crime charges, Landale said. The ICTY keeps its consent for such cases confidential and informs of it only the Office of the High Representative for Bosnia- Herzegovina and Sarajevo authorities. When the Tribunal expresses its stance on the acceptability of evidence, it does not assert that the proceedings have to continue nor does the Tribunal itself indict the person in question, Landale explained. Following the information released by the Sarajevo Canton public prosecutor that an investigation into war crimes committed by the Bosnian Army against Croat civilians in Grabovica, southern Bosnia, in 1993, was in its final stage, and that an ICTY team had been engaged in the probe, Landale said he could not comment on investigations. He added that the ICTY Prosecutor can ask, in any moment, a national court to defer any trial of war crimes to the competence of the ICTY. The Sarajevo Canton public prosecutor told a Sarajevo daily that the evidence about crimes committed by Bosnian Army soldiers in Grabovica would be soon forwarded to the Bosnian judiciary. The ICTY, however, declines to comment, for security reasons, on investigations it is carrying out or in which it is participating. (hina) ms 1