KERN: SAKIC BELIEVES HIS WIFE DID NOT AUTHORS DEFENCE LAWYER

( Editorial: --> 5266 ) ZAGREB, July 2 (Hina)- Dinko Sakic's officially assigned defence lawyer, Ivan Kern, said today that Sakic believed his wife had not authorized anyone to defend him. When asked to confirm whether Nada Sakic authorised the Zagreb based lawyer Branko Seric to defend her husband, Kern answered: "Sakic simply does not believe that his wife signed that". The news about the authorisation of Seric has been published by a Zagreb newspaper along with a facsimile of a power of attorney. Kern says that Sakic told him today that in his last telephone conversation with his wife she had not mentioned any power of attorney. Sakic added he would clarify the issue with his wife later on Thursday or on Friday and would personally decide about his defence. The investigative magistrate heard on Thursday the second witness, Ante Milkovic (81). Mr. Milkovic, the founder and the first general manager of the INA oil company after Second World War, was detained at the Jasenovac concentration camp between October 1941 and 1944, when he was swapped for a German army officer in the village of Pisarovina. The witness confirmed that on several occasions he saw Sakic entering and exiting the camp HQ. Yet, the witness does not know what was Sakic's duty at the camp, Kern said. The witness never witnessed any crime or maltreatment by Sakic, Kern said next. During the two-hour long hearing, Milkovic also spoke about the notorious "Zvonara" building, where inmates were interrogated, tortured and murdered. The worst atrocities at Jasenovac took place in 1941 and 1942. After the capitulation of Italy the strict regime was somewhat relaxed, Milkovic stated. The witness also said that in January 1942 he saw a men whose ears had been cut off laying on a heap of coal. The man had been thrown there after interrogation. Milkovic also saw men being lead out of the camp, their hands tied up with wire. (Hina) jn mr 022009 MET jul 98