ICTY HAILS EXTRADITION OF VINKO MARTINOVIC STELA

ZAGREB, Aug 9 (Hina) - The prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) hails the move of the Croatian Government which extradited Vinko Martinovic Stela to the Tribunal Monday, the ICTY said in a statement. Martinovic was held in detention in Croatia from the beginning of 1997. In December 1998, ICTY chief prosecutor Louise Arbour indicted Martinovic and Mladen Naletilic Tuta of being responsible for ethnic cleansing in Mostar in 1993, the statement said. In issuing indictments against the two, Arbour had advocated that both should stand trial together, and she stands by this stance. Otherwise, the Tribunal would be forced to hold two separate trials which, considering the limited court resources, which would inevitably extend the trial for the second person indicted waiting the beginning of the trial in detention, the statement said. A postponement of the trial will be of no use to either the victims or indictees who will have to take the stand two times in that case. The prosecutor holds that it is not in the interest if international criminal law for multiple trials to be held under one indictment, the statement said. Now that Martinovic has been extradited to the Tribunal, the chief prosecutor calls on the Croatian Government to extradite Naletilic as well, so a joint trial could begin, the ICTY said. (hina) lml