The lawyer told reporters in Sarajevo that at an extradition hearing, set for Tuesday at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he would present evidence collected by the Croatian prosecutorial authorities in Osijek which show that there is no ground for investigating Purda over alleged war crimes.

He recalled that a statement which Purda gave to Serbian authorities while he had been detained in a Serbian concentration camp after the fall of Vukovar into the hands of the Serb rebels supported by the then Yugoslav People's Army, should be treated as the unlawfully obtained statement.

Purda's statement is the basis for Serbia's request for his arrest and extradition. The Croatian war veteran was arrested on a Croatian-Bosnian border crossing on 5 January on the basis of that international warrant issued by Serbia and since then he has been held in prison in Zenica.

According to Muselimovic, Croatia's justice ministry has already forwarded its position on this case to the Bosnian justice ministry and to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the lawyer believes that this documentation will also play an important role in the court's procedure regarding its decision on the Purda case file.

On Tuesday, the parties to these proceedings will present their views and documentation, while a ruling of the court can be expected at a later date.

The court's spokeswoman, Selma Hadzic said that there were no deadlines for making decisions in such cases, however, all extradition cases were considered in fast-track procedure.

In the event of appeals, people can be held in extradition custody up to six months.

When it comes to extradition decisions, it is the justice minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina who has the final say, the spokeswoman said, adding that a ruling by the court can be either upheld or turned down by the minister.