ZAGREB, Oct 16 (Hina) - The retrial in the "Pakracka Poljana case" at the Zagreb County Court was adjourned on Wednesday because one of the indictees, Igor Mikola, was unable to attend as he is in custody at the Mostar Canton
Prison.
ZAGREB, Oct 16 (Hina) - The retrial in the "Pakracka Poljana case"
at the Zagreb County Court was adjourned on Wednesday because one of
the indictees, Igor Mikola, was unable to attend as he is in custody
at the Mostar Canton Prison. #L#
Mikola's attorney Visnja Drenski-Lasan said that her client was in
custody for attempted extortion. The decision on his detention was
made by the Siroki Brijeg Municipal Court, which on October 1
refused Mikola's appeal to the decision, the attorney said. She
pledged to provide additional documents from Bosnia-Herzegovina to
prove that court proceedings against Mikola are underway.
The president of the panel of judges, Rajka Tomerlin-Almer, said
that the Supreme Court had refused an appeal by another indictee in
the case, Miroslav Bajramovic, to be tried in absence. Bajramovic
is currently on the run.
Munib Suljic, Igor Mikola, Sinisa Rimac, Branko Saric and Miroslav
Bajramovic are charged with the murder of a member of the Croatian
army, Aleksandar Antic, in the Pakrac region in late 1991, and the
unlawful arrest of and extortion from Milos Ivosevic, Rade Pajic
and Marko Grujic. In October 1991 these three were taken from Zagreb
to Pakracka Poljana where they were murdered by unidentified
persons.
The defendants were members of a reserve police force unit, which at
the beginning of the war was commanded by Tomislav Mercep.
The five men were put on retrial after the Supreme Court last year
quashed part of a 1999 verdict which acquitted them on two counts of
the indictment.
Judge Tomerlin-Almer today handed the parties in the proceedings
records from a Monday exhumation in the Pakracka Poljana region
which failed to turn up the remains of Aleksandar Antic.
(hina) rml