The Zagreb County Court has greenlighted the extradition of Sretko Kalinic to Serbia, and this decision can be appealed by Kalinic at the Supreme Court within three days.
Kalinic, who holds both Croatian and Serbian citizenship and who is sentenced in Serbia to 30 years for his involvement in the 2003 assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, is likely to be the first Croatian national to be extradited by Zagreb to a foreign country.
The Zagreb County Court's spokesman, Judge Kresimir Devcic, told Hina on the phone on Wednesday that the court's panel of judges had decided on the extradition of Kalinic, who is believed to be a member of underworld gangs in Belgrade.
A bilateral extradition agreement which Croatia and Serbia signed on 29 June has removed obstacles for the transfer of Kalinic, who is currently in the Zagreb-based prison hospital, to Belgrade.
Serbian authorities undertake to hold Kalinic's retrial as he was sentenced to prison in absentia.
Kalinic, who has been beyond the reach of Serbian authorities since the Djinjdic murder, was wounded in a mafia-style shoot-out at Rakitje Lake outside the Croatian capital in June.
In mid-July Kalinic told the Zagreb County Court that he would oppose his hand-over to Serbia in fear of unjust trial.
