Dragan Paravinja, a man convicted of rape in Serbia and suspected of being involved in the disappearance of a teenage Croatian girl a month ago, agreed to his extradition in Croatia at an extradition hearing held before the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Monday, following a request of the Croatian justice ministry for his transfer from Sarajevo to Croatia.
Although the 42-year-old Paravinja consented to his extradition under fast-track procedure, reports that he also possesses the citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the ongoing trial against him before the municipal court in Skololac, eastern Bosnia could render the entire procedure more complicated, according to statements made by the Bosnian state court and Paravinja's lawyer.
"Paravinja does not oppose his extradition to Croatia and requests fast-track procedure," the state court's spokeswoman Selma Hadzic told reporters today.
She added that the procedure for his extradition to Croatia could not begin until the end of his detention in custody set for him by the Sokolac municipal court which charges him with an attempted rape in Bosnia. This detention can last up to six months, the spokeswoman said.
Paravinja, who has been kept behind bars in the Kula penitentiary in eastern Sarajevo since his arrest in Bosnia on 26 June, claimed at today's hearing that apart from Croatian and Serbian citizenship, he was also a Bosnian national, which could complicate the entire procedure of his handover to the Croatian judiciary.
Today, he denied having killed the 17-year-old Antonia Bilic in southern Croatia although upon his arrest in Bosnia he said that he had strangled Bilic while trying to cover up an attempt of sexual assault. The Croatian police and investigators are still intensively searching for Bilic. Paravinja claimed today that he had made the confession in Banja Luka under duress.
