JAKOV FINCI TESTIFIES IN SAKIC CASE

( Editorial: --> 8834 ) ZAGREB, July 20 (Hina) - Another witness in the trial against World War Two concentration camp commander Dinko Sakic was examined on Monday by the investigating judge of the Zagreb County Court. Jakov Finci, born 1923, was arrested by Ustasha police in Sarajevo on February 14, 1942 and transferred to the Jasenovac concentration camp in Croatia early in March. The following month he was transferred to a concentration camp in Stara Gradiska, where he was kept until September 23, 1944. He was then returned to Jasenovac, where he remained until the inmates broke free on April 22, 1945. Finci told the court he had not seen the accused in Stara Gradiska. Sakic was present at the hanging of three people in Jasenovac in October 1944, when he held a speech, the witness said. He added that another two men were hanged during the time Sakic was commander at Jasenovac, including one Jew. Sakic had not been present at these hangings, the witness said. Finci also spoke about the killing of 400 Jew inmates of the Stara Gradiska camp on the Jablanac location in May 1942. When the Stara Gradiska camp was closed down, the inmates were forced to walk more than 30km towards Jasenovac. According to the witness, more than 200 exhausted inmates were killed along the way. When they reached the Jasenovac camp, they were maltreated and deprived of money and jewellery. Finci said that mass killings in Jasenovac began in the autumn of 1944. He also spoke about the killing of 800 women at the Gradina location a day before the breakout from the Jasenovac camp. The witness said that in early April 1945 about 700 prisoners brought from Lepoglava were killed before even entering the Jasenovac camp. The bodies of the dead at the Gradina cemetery were exhumed and then burned in order to destroy any evidence of the crimes. The witness confirmed that so far he did not suffer any unpleasantness because of his witness status, apart from being hounded by reporters interested in what he had gone through in the concentration camps. Eight witnesses have been examined in the Sakic case to date, and another dozen are expected. (hina) ha jn 201816 MET jul 98