INVESTIGATION IN GOSPIC CASE EXTENDED TO NORAC, CANIC

RIJEKA, Feb 7 (Hina) - The State Prosecutor's Office in Rijeka County has forwarded the Rijeka County Court a request regarding the extension of investigative proceedings in 'the Gospic group' case to Mirko Norac and Milan Canic and suggested that they be taken into custody. A statement issued today by Rijeka State Prosecutor Drago Marincel brings only the initials of the two suspects. Milan Canic was a deputy to Mirko Norac, a war-time commander of Gospic defence forces and member of the town's crisis headquarters. The two men are charged with war crimes against civilians. The extension of the investigation was announced by State Prosecutor Marincel several days ago. The investigative proceedings against 'the Gospic group', charged with war crimes against Serb civilians in the Gospic area in 1991, have been conducted at the Rijeka County Court since mid-September last year. Initially, the investigation included five persons - Tihomir Oreskovic and four other men from Gospic. In late December the investigation request was extended to Stjepan Grandic, suspected of events at Lipova Glavica, in the Gospic area, where a group of Serbs was allegedly executed. The bodies of these people were exhumed at another location, called Debelo Brdo, in December last year. The investigating judge in the Gospic case has questioned about 100 witnesses so far, and some of them recently implicated Norac and Canic. (hina) rml