ZAGREB, Feb 3 (Hina) - The Croatian State Attorney's Office said Wednesday the work of all participants in the investigative proceedings and resulting decision in the Nada Sakic case was "motivated by legal proceedings led in
accordance with the ruling world legal order on determining crime and liability".
ZAGREB, Feb 3 (Hina) - The Croatian State Attorney's Office said
Wednesday the work of all participants in the investigative
proceedings and resulting decision in the Nada Sakic case was
"motivated by legal proceedings led in accordance with the ruling
world legal order on determining crime and liability". #L#
Reacting to statements in the press which brought into question the
fairness and objectivity of the proceedings, the State Attorney's
Office said "the tactless statement by Ephraim Zuroff which
questions the objectivity and fairness of the carried out criminal
proceedings is surprising".
Zuroff reacted to a statement by the Zagreb County State Attorney's
Office dated February 2, which said it was abandoning the
persecution of Nada Sakic for war crimes against civilians during
World War II, because the act of which Sakic had been accused had not
been proven during investigative proceedings.
Following this statement, the daily press ran the assessments of
some people, which, according to the State Attorney's Office,
falsely, legally unjustifiably and primarily perniciously bring
into question the fairness and objectivity of acts of the State
Attorney's Office with their exclusive political connotation, and
additionally, harm the reputation of the democratic system of the
Croatian State with their political dimension.
The Croatian State Attorney's Office described the work of all
participants in the case as exclusively motivated by legal
proceedings led in accordance with the ruling world legal order on
determining crime and liability. It, therefore, dismissed
retrograde political advocating of determining liability and
condemnation notwithstanding the strength of established
evidence.
"The tactless statement by Mr. Ephraim Zuroff, director of
Jerusalem's 'Simon Weisenthal' centre, who questions the
objectivity and fairness of the carried out criminal proceedings,
drawing conclusions and making an estimate about guilt solely on
the basis of materials which were used as a foundation for
extradition, is surprising.
It is obvious to any attorney that the archived materials of the
Croatian Commission for the Establishment of Crimes of Occupators
and their Collaborators (established after World War II) pointed to
possible evidence for the establishment of which the Croatian State
Attorney's Office invested all possible efforts.
The request for extradition is also an indicator of Croatia's
readiness to prove such a hard crime, as well as the liability of its
perpetrator.
During the investigative procedure, the State Attorney's Office
accepted all offered evidence. Zuroff's statement is best refuted
by an assessment by Mr. Tommy P. Baer, the honorary chairman of the
international B'nai B'rith organisation. Baer told the Voice of
America that the proceedings led by the State Attorney's Office had
been objective and fair," the statement, signed by Croatian State
Attorney Marijan Hranjski, said.
(hina) lml