Yugoslavia Denies Artukovic Appeal of Death Sentence
The Supreme Court of Croatia rejected an appeal today by Nazi war criminal Andrija Artukovic, who was extradited from the United States and sentenced to death for mass murder, the Yugoslav news agency said.
A Zagreb court convicted Artukovic, 86, of the mass murder of civilians and prisoners of war during World War II, while he was interior minister of the Nazi puppet state of Croatia. He was sentenced to death by firing squad after an 18-day trial that ended May 14.
The Supreme Court of Croatia today ruled his appeal groundless.
The news agency Tanjug did not say when the execution was scheduled. It was not immediately known if the lawyers would continue to appeal to the highest court in Belgrade.
Artukovic was arrested at his Seal Beach, Calif., home Nov. 14, 1984, and extradited in February when the last of his appeals in the United States was exhausted.
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