CRO INTERIOR MINISTRY DENIES STATEMENT OF BOSNIAN FEDERAL OFFICIAL

ZAGREB, Dec 23 (Hina) - Croatia's Interior Ministry on Thursday refuted allegations of Mehmed Zilic, Interior Minister of Bosnia- Herzegovina's Federation, that his Croatian counterpart Ivan Penic promised him to hand over Fikret Abdic to Bosnia-Herzegovina. "Minister Mehmed Zilic's statement is not correct that Croatia's Interior Minister Ivan Penic has told him that Fikret Abdic will be transferred to Bosnia-Herzegovina, that Abdic is save and that he will be apprehended and extradited as soon as Croatia's Justice Ministry gives consent for that," read a statement released by the Interior Ministry in Zagreb. Asked about the Abdic case, Minister Penic told Zilic that "within the legal system of the Republic of Croatia, the case of Fikret Abdic is in the jurisdiction of Croatia's Justice Ministry, and this means that the Interior Ministry can treat Abdic only in accordance with a decision of the Interior Ministry." During Thursday's session of the Bosnian Croat-Moslem Federation in Mostar, Zilic said Penic had told him that Abdic would be extradited to Bosnia. During the war in Bosnia, the Sarajevo Government treated Abdic as a secessionist in western areas who collaborated with Serb units. (hina) mm ms