The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) on Wednesday asked the parliament to urgently adopt a law which would annul the amendments to the national legislation on the implementation of the European Arrest Warrant that introduced a time limit on EAW application, stirring up strong criticism from the European Commission.
Three days before its entry into the European Union on 1 July, Croatia changed the EAW legislation, with those amendments envisaging that the EAW would be applied only to crimes committed after August 2002. The public and critics of the changed legislation presume that the time limit was introduced only to prevent the extradition of Josip Perkovic, a Croatian national who used to be a Yugoslav intelligence agent, to Germany where he is wanted for his role in the assassination of a Croat dissident from Yugoslavia in 1983.
HDZ MP Davorin Mlakar told the parliament today that 53 deputies had supported his party's request for the annulment of the legislation dubbed "Lex Perkovc" as they wanted Croatia to go out of the current detrimental situation.
He accused Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and his cabinet of their firm insistence on the current form of EAW legislation in Croatia.
