SERB WAR CRIME SUSPECT HANDED OVER TO CROATIA

ZAGREB, Nov 16 (Hina) - Zorana Banic, sentenced in absence by a Croatian court to 20 years in prison for war crimes committed against civilians in the village of Skabrnja, was handed over to the Croatian authorities upon her arrival at Zagreb airport from Zurich on Friday, the Croatian Interior Ministry reported. "Zorana Banic arrived at Zagreb airport around 12:20 hours under the escort of the Zagreb Interpol members," the head of the ministry's department for international police assistance and cooperation, Zoran Nekic, said. Banic arrived aboard a Croatia Airlines plane and is due to appear at the Zadar County Court investigating centre later in the day. Banic, a 49-year-old Serb with Croatian citizenship, born in Zemunik Gornji near Zadar, was arrested on November 1 this year at the Zurich airport by order of the Swiss federal office for judiciary and at the request of the Zagreb Interpol office. She is one of 18 Serbs sentenced by the Zadar County Court in 1995 for the murder of 43 civilians in Skabrnja in the Zadar hinterland in mid-November 1991. Banic, a nurse by profession, was then sentenced to 20 years in prison and the verdict was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 1998, after which an international arrest warrant was issued. All convicts in the Skabrnja case but one, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence, are at large. After the arrest, Banic told the Swiss authorities she agreed to her hand-over if she was granted a re-trial in Croatia, to which she is entitled. The Swiss authorities agreed to extradite Banic after Croatia guaranteed to re-open her case. (hina) rml