NADA SAKIC ARRIVES IN ZAGREB TO UNDERGO TRIAL

ZAGREB, Nov 2 (Hina) - Nada Esperanza Sakic arrived tonight at 7 p.m. at the Zagreb airport of Pleso on a regular Croatia Airlines flight from Frankfurt. From the airport runway Nada Sakic was transferred directly to the Zagreb County Prison at Remetinec, where her husband Dinko Sakic, a former commander of the Jasenovac concentration camp, is also in custody. In the following 24 hours she will be brought before the investigating judge of the Zagreb County Court. The charges must be filed 6 months after the completion of the investigation she is under. The Argentine authorities extradited Nada Sakic to Croatia Monday night for founded suspicion that she had committed criminal acts against humanity and international law - war crimes against civilians - at the concentration camp of Stara Gradiska. The following is the chronology of events leading to the extradition of Sakic to Croatian authorities: July 16 - The French news agency AFP reported that the Argentine authorities will institute proceedings against Esperanza (Nada) Sakic. Victor Ramos, Head of the Argentine National Institute Against Discrimination and Xenophobia, said that Nada Sakic, who had changed her name to Esperanza in Argentina, had been a member of the Nazi "Ustasha" army during World War II. At 16, she had been part of the managing body of a concentration camp for women, where she had participated in "all forms of torture and crime, according to the reports of eye-witnesses." He also said that the accusations had come to his awareness about Nada Sakic from the Museum of Genocide Victims in Belgrade. July 23 - Federal Judge Hernana Bernasconi interrogated Nada Sakic and decided that, due to her suffering from Parkinsons disease as well as other diseases, she should await the decision on her extradition being confined in house arrest. July 24 - The County Attorney's Office in Zagreb filed a motion for investigation against Nada (Esperanza) Sakic in Argentina and suggested pre-trial detention on suspicion that she had committed war crimes against civilians. The Zagreb County Attorney's Office charged Nada Sakic with torturing prisoners in the concentration camp of Stara Gradiska, together with other "Ustasha" officers, in the period from 1942-1945, which resulted in the deaths of numerous persons, the number of which was still unknown. July 24 - County Attorney Radovan Santek made a statement in which he said that he expected the Ministry of Justice to request the extradition of Nada Sakic to Croatia from the Argentine authorities on the grounds of the County Attorney's Office request and the corresponding legal decision. July 25 - The Croatian Ministry of Justice announced that it would institute proceedings for the extradition of Esperanza (Nada) Sakic to Croatia when legal conditions as well as international conventions were fulfilled. July 26 - Efraim Zuruff, Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, commented on the arrest of Nada Sakic by saying that they would prefer that she be tried in Croatia. July 28 - The Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia decided that the jurisdiction in the case of Nada Sakic would be transferred from the County Court in Sisak to the County Court in Zagreb. July 28 - The County Court in Zagreb decided to conduct an investigation against the suspect Nada Sakic based on suspicion that she had committed criminal acts against humanity and international law, war crime against civilians, and had ordered her to undergo pre-trial detention. July 28 - The Ministry of Justice filed a request for the extradition of Nada Esperanza de Bilanovic-Sakic via diplomatic channels to the Republic of Argentina following the decision of the County Court in Zagreb. July 28 - The president of the County Court in Zagreb appointed Branko Seric of Zagreb as counsel for the defence. July 29 - Victor Ramos, Head of the Argentine National Institute Against Discrimination and Xenophobia, said that the Argentine government had agreed to extradite Nada Sakic to Croatia. He also said that they had declined the request made by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for her extradition on the grounds that the acts for which the suspect was charged had been committed on the territory of today's Republic of Croatia. July 30 - Branko Seric, the appointed counsel for the defence, lodged a complaint with the County Court against the decision to conduct an investigation and order pre-trial detention for Nada Sakic on the grounds that there was not a single piece of evidence that would justify the suspicion that the defendant, alone or with other officials of the "Ustasha" body that ran the camp, had committed the crimes for which she was accused. August 6 - The Outstanding County Court Council in Zagreb rejected the complaint of the defence counsel Seric's decision to conduct an investigation. August 21 - The president of Argentina signed the decision on the extradition of Esperanza Tambic de Bilanovic Sakic to Croatia. August 25 - The Ministry of Justice confirmed that the Croatian Embassy in Buenos Aires had been informed on August 23 that the president of Argentina had signed the decision on extradition of Nada Sakic to Croatia. October 6 - The Croatian Embassy in Argentina received a formal notice from the Argentine Foreign Ministry stating that the extradition of Nada Sakic to Croatia was permitted. (hina) jfk 7 ljl