FIRST WITNESSES TESTIFY IN NADA SAKIC CASE

ZAGREB, Nov 24 (Hina) - Two witnesses testified in Zagreb on Tuesday against Nada Sakic, accused of war crimes committed against civilians in Croatia during World War II. Both witnesses were prisoners of the Ustasha concentration camp for women in Stara Gradiska, in which Sakic was one of the officials, but neither of the witnesses had heard of Sakic during their time in the camp. Cecilija Cokljat (born in 1919), who gave her statement in her apartment, had been arrested in Osijek, in June of 1943. She was imprisoned in the Stara Gradiska concentration camp until October 1944, when she was transferred to the Jasenovac concentration camp. Cokljat said she heard of Nada Sakic only when the investigation procedure started, however she did not recall Sakic's name being mentioned by the prisoners of the Stara Gadiska camp. The second witness, Ruzica Miskovic (born in 1918), who was arrested in Slavonski Brod as a sympathiser of the Communist Party. Miskovic spent three months in prison in Slavonski Brod from where she was taken to the Stara Gradiska camp in May 1943. She was detained in Stara Gradiska until November of the same year. Miskovic said she had neither seen nor heard of Nada Sakic, however she described in details the accommodation and treatment in the camp. Sakic's court-appointed attorney Branko Seric said on Tuesday that his client was still in prison hospital due to health problems. According to Seric, the hearing will continue on November 27. (hina) it jn/rml