The World : Artukovic Hears Charges

Andrija Artukovic was formally indicted on war crimes charges in Zagreb, Yugoslavia. The 86-year-old Seal Beach, Calif., resident, extradited to Yugoslavia on Feb. 12 after a 35-year legal struggle, was accused of complicity in the murder of 700,000 people while he was minister of justice in the Nazi puppet state of Croatia during World War II. The indictment read by the public prosecutor said Artukovic “organized, ordered and carried out mass persecution, torture and physical extermination of the civilian population” and accused him of “genocide against Serbs, Jews, Slovenes, Muslims, Gypsies, and mass murders of Croats and other nationalities.” No date for his trial has been set.