LORA TRIAL ENDS, VERDICT TOMORROW

SPLIT, Nov 20 (Hina) - The trial of eight former military policemen accused of war crimes against civilians in the Lora military prison in Split ended before the Split County Court on Wednesday with closing arguments of three defence attorneys. The defence attorneys asked that their clients be acquitted while the verdict will be passed on Friday, November 22.#L# At the beginning of the today's proceedings the panel of judges, presided by Judge Slavko Lozina, informed the public that it had submitted a report to the state prosecutor Mladen Bajic relating to the inappropriate behaviour of deputy county prosecutor, attorney Michael Squiccimarr, during his closing argument in which he expressed direct doubt in the objectivity of the panel, accusing it of prejudging the decision in the proceedings. In their closing argument, the defence said that civilians were not detained in the Lora prison but that they rather organised rebel groups accused of terrorism who were later pardoned in keeping with the Law on Abolition. It was also said that war crimes cannot be committed against one's own citizens and as such the charges were misguided. The defence attorneys on the main part claimed that it was not proven that the defendants committed the crimes specified in the indictment. Today's closing arguments ended the trial that has continued for the past five months or 41 days of hearings regarding the Lora case. Since June 10 this year, about 60 witnesses have taken the stand and some witnesses from Yugoslavia were not questioned because they did not respond to several subpoenas. The defendants accused of war crimes in the Lora prison include former military policemen, Tomislav Duic, who is tried in absentia, Andelko Botic, Ante Gudic, Emilio Bungur, Davor Banic, Tonci Vrkic, and Josip Bikic and Miljenko Bajic who have been at large since August when they did not return to prison after a bail ruling was revoked. (hina) sp it sb