Croatian President Ivo Josipovic has said that he expects all countries to grant well-prepared requests from Croatia for the extradition of war crimes suspects.
In his comment on media reports that the Daily Mail wrote that the British judiciary had turned down Croatia's request for the extradition of Milan Sarcevic, suspected of war crimes the Serb troops committed at Ovcara, eastern Croatia, Josipovic said on Tuesday that he expected Croatia to investigate all crimes and prepare well all extradition requests.
I expect countries with which we cooperate to grant such requests, Josipovic said adding that he was not acquainted with the details of the Sarcevic case.
According to the Croatian president, all countries are expected to be committed to international cooperation in criminal law matters.
Croatia should apply high standards in preparing indictments and sometimes it happened that poorly prepared requests for extradition made it impossible for other countries to cooperate with us in the war crimes prosecution, he said.
Josipovic declined to comment on media reports that Britain seemed to be unwilling to hand over war crimes suspects, adding that Croatia has so far requested the transfer of war crimes suspects from several countries and that in some cases those requests have been successful and some unsuccessful.
According to the British newspaper, "Milan Sarcevic has been allowed to stay in Britain because throwing him out would violate his human rights".
"Suspected war criminal Sarcevic was told by the Home Office that he must leave last year. But a judge overturned the decision, and ruled his right to a ‘family life’ under Article 8 of the Human Rights Act means he can stay in Britain. Sarcevic, a Serbian, is accused of taking part in the 1991 Vukovar massacre, one of the worst atrocities of the Balkans war, when up to 300 wounded Croats were beaten, executed and buried in a mass grave," the newspaper said in the article headlined "Human rights lets Serbian accused of war atrocity that killed hundreds live here in council flat".
"The 60-year-old first came to Britain more than a decade ago and, when refused asylum, returned to Croatia in September 2002. But just eight months later he was allowed back into Britain to put in another asylum claim. At the time the system was in chaos, and his case was neglected for nearly eight years, during which time he and his family settled in the UK."
The Daily Mail quoted Sarcevic as saying that he was "a conscripted soldier for many years but I never killed or targeted innocent civilians."
