ALEKSOVSKI: I HAVE BEEN RELEASED UNCONDITIONALLY

ZAGREB, May 8 (Hina) - Zlatko Aleksovski, who was sentenced on Friday to two and a half years in prison by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), for crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims in the Lasva River valley, on Saturday returned to Zagreb after the ICTY released him because he had already spent three years in prison. Greeting those who came to Zagreb airport to welcome him, including Croatian Justice Minister Zvonimir Separovic, Aleksovski said it was very important that he had been released unconditionally. Speaking about other persons indicted for crimes in the Lasva River valley, Aleksovski said they needed help to prove the truth. "If they are convicted, then all those in central Bosnia have little to hope for. We have to fight both for them and for central Bosnia", he said. Aleksovski thanked his attorneys, Croatian authorities, clergy and especially the Croatian Embassy in The Hague. "I share the happiness of his family and the Croatian people because one of those whom Croatia had handed over to the ICTY... is back among us. This is great encouragement for us. This gives us hope that the tribunal will be just to the others, because the Prosecutor had demanded a prison sentence of at least ten years", Justice Minister Separovic said. "The Tribunal has demonstrated tolerance, it has released (Aleksovski) even before the whole procedure has been completed... which shows its good will", Separovic said. "We will support Zlatko Aleksovski in proving that he is innocent", he added. Aleksovski, a former commander of a prison in Kaonik, in which Bosnian Muslims were imprisoned and tortured during 1993, was pronounced guilty by the ICTY of violating the law and customs of war. However, he was acquitted on two counts of the indictment relating to the grave violations of the Geneva conventions, since the Prosecution failed to prove that the conflict in the area of Busovaca in 1993 had been an international conflict. Srdjan Joka, one of Aleksovski's attorneys, said the defence would file an appeal to the sentence although it was exceptionally satisfied with the ICTY's decision, because their client had been acquitted on two thirds of the indictment. Accompanied by his wife Vesna, Aleksovski was welcomed at Zagreb airport by his mother and his two children, as well as by Slobodan Lang, advisor to Croatian President Franjo Tudjman on humanitarian issues, and a parliamentary representative Bosiljko Misetic. (hina) rml,