A Justice Ministry source confirmed to the press on Thursday that as early as next week the Ministry could send proposed legislative amendments to the government to remove the limit on the application of the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) for crimes committed after August 2002.
In his recent letter to European Justice Commissioner Viviane Redding, Justice Minister Orsat Miljenic said that Croatia was implementing the EAW and had undertaken to align its law on judicial cooperation in criminal matters with EU member states with the acquis. The letter clearly defined the time frame within which the legislative amendments would be made, enacted by Parliament and brought into force, and Croatia will stick to that time frame, the source recalled.
In an earlier letter to Reding, Miljenic said that his ministry would address the amendments to Parliament within two weeks' time, adding that he expected the amendments to be adopted at the start of the autumn sitting of Parliament and would go into force on July 15 next year.
A few days before joining the European Union, Croatia passed the law on judicial cooperation, of which the EAW is part and which limits its application to crimes committed after August 2002. Reding later said that by amending its EAW law Croatia violated EU legislation and should correct it.
Anto Nobilo, lawyer for Josip Perkovic, former senior official of the Yugoslav secret service and later of the Croatian secrete service, would not comment on the planned amendments on Thursday.
Perkovic is wanted by Germany for his role in the murder of a Croatian dissident in 1983. The EAW law is popularly known in Croatia as Lex Perkovic.
"We will not make statements until a final legislative framework has been established, because we need to know the rules of the game before we start playing," Nobilo said, adding that planned constitutional amendments concerning the statute of limitations on politically motivated crimes were important for the Perkovic case as well.
