Croatian Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko said on Monday that all preparations had been made for the extradition of Ivo Sanader, declining to reveal when the former prime minister would be transferred from Austria to Croatia.
Ahead of a meeting of the ministers of the interior and justice and the chief state prosecutor with representatives of war veterans associations, Karamarko said that preparations for Sanader's extradition had been made at the technical level".
One of Sanader's Zagreb-based lawyers, Goran Suic, told reporters that Sanader would be extradited this week, but he too declined to speak about the exact date of the extradition.
The Austrian Justice Ministry also declined to speak about the extradition procedure, stressing that this was Croatia's internal matter.
The Croatian Justice Ministry said the extradition was no a technical issues to be dealt with by the police and the Interpol Office in Zagreb.
Sanader has been in the Salzburg detention for the past seven months. Although he opposed his extradition to Croatia at the beginning, claiming he would not stand a fair trial in his homeland, the former PM recently changed his position and agreed with a fast-track extradition procedure.
After the extradition, Sanader will be transported to the Remetinec detention unit as an investigation judge had set a month-long detention for him. After that, Sanader will be taken to the USKOK office which has been investigating him for the past seven months.
