NADA SAKIC'S DEFENCE ATTORNEY FILES APPEAL

( Editorial: --> 0846 ) ZAGREB, July 30 (Hina) - The defence attorney of Nada Esperanza Tambic de Bilanovic Sakic, a former official in the WWII Stara Gradiska concentration camp, has filed an appeal to the decision on an investigation of his client. Branko Seric suggested that the Zagreb County Court extrajudiciary council abort the investigation and annul the decision on detention of Sakic. Seric told Hina he had filed the appeal because there is not one shred of evidence which would suggest that the defendant, alone or together with any other officials at the camp, had committed the acts he was being accused of. Seric stressed there was no physical nor verbal evidence mentioned in the decision to be found during the investigation. Verbal evidence are the statements of several witnesses who did not say that the defendant acted as had been put in the decision for the investigation. Also, Seric said, in the documentation gathered from the Croatian State Archives, there was nothing to show that she had committed the crime she is being accused of. He said Sakic had been registered as member of the 1st Ustasha corps and as an Ustasha official at the Stara Gradiska concentration camp. He added that the fact that she was registered as such did not prove that she had committed the crime she was being charged with. Seric held that the appeal on the decision on detention would be considered only when Sakic begins her detention time in Croatia. There is a possibility that the extrajudiciary council would not consider the appeal on the decision on the conducting of the investigation of Sakic until she is extradited, Seric said. He added that the deadline for solving an appeal was 48 hours. (hina) lml jn 301855 MET jul 98