Dragan Paravinja, a 43-year-old truck driver charged with the murder of the underage girl Antonia Bilic in southern Croatia, was transferred from the prison in the coastal city of Sibenik to Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday morning to attend a hearing in the appellate proceedings in the case in which he is charged with attempted rape of a woman in Pale, outside Sarajevo in 2002, Paravinja's layer told the media on Wednesday.
Paravinja was escorted by special police, the lawyer Branko Baica said.
Paravinja's extradition was requested by the Bosnia authorities so that he can attend a hearing at the East Sarajevo district court that is considering appeals against a ruling of the Sokoloac municipal court that sentenced him to two years and ten months in prison for the attempted rape.
Lawyer Baica said today that he could not know whether and when Paravinja would be transferred back to Croatia to attend hearings in his trial on charges of attempted rape and murder of Bilic and attempted rape of another girl in June 2010 in Croatia. The trial is to be conducted by the Sibenik County Court.
The hearing before the Sarajevo district court is scheduled for 22 December.
Bilic went missing on June 7 after entering Paravinja's truck at a bridge across the Cikola river in the Sibenik hinterland. Paravinja first confessed to the murder only to change his statement later, claiming that his confession was extorted by the police.
Serbia has issued a warrant for Paravinja's arrest over a rape and an attempted rape for which he has been convicted to four years and five months' imprisonment.
