The State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Monday received a complaint lodged by the defence counsel for Croatian war veteran Tihomir Purda against a court ruling extending his extradition custody, and in the meantime Serbian authorities submitted documents which are necessary for making a decision on Serbia's request for Purda's extradition.
Court spokeswoman Selma Hadzic said the judge in charge of the case would give his opinion on Purda's complaint and forward it to a panel of judges to decide on it within a period of three days.
Purda's attorney Josip Muselimovic said earlier that he expected the court to allow the complaint.
"I believe that in deciding on the extension of the extradition custody, the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has superficially studied the law on international legal assistance and based on Article 14 ruled that extradition custody for Purda be extended to 40 days. I also believe that in making its decision the court disregarded the European Convention on Extradition," Muselimovic said, adding that he believed that Purda would not be extradited to Serbia.
The documentation needed to decide on Serbia's extradition request was sent to the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the afternoon of January 21, only a day after a request for extending custody for Purda by another 22 days arrived in Sarajevo from Belgrade.
The decision on possible extradition is to be made by a panel of judges of the State Court, but there is no exactly defined legal framework within which this should be done, so it is theoretically possible that Purda remains in custody in Bosnia for months.
"After documents that are needed to decide on extradition are delivered, extradition custody can be prolonged to up to six months," Hadzic said.
If the panel of judges decides to extradite Purda to Serbia, his defence counsel will have the right to appeal.
Hadzic said that in deciding on the request for Purda's extradition, the panel of judges would "consider all evidence", recalling that Muselimovic had asked that the court also take into consideration evidence collected by the Osijek County Prosecutor's Office in Croatia.
Last week the Office of Croatia's Chief State Prosecutor said that an investigation had revealed that there were no grounds for launching criminal proceedings against Purda, and since there were no legal grounds for his prosecution by Croatian authorities, the Osijek County Prosecutor's Office decided not to request his extradition from Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he was arrested on January 5 on a warrant issued by Serbian authorities, which want him on war crimes charges.
