The Office of the State Prosecutor of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday forwarded a request to the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina to set extradition detention for Dragan Paravinja, wanted in Croatia for the recent murder of the 17-year-old girl Antonia Bilic in the Dalmatian hinterland while trying to cover up an attempted rape and of the attempted rape of a hitch-hiker near the coastal town of Omis in 2010.
The Bosnian prosecutorial authorities reported that they had received Croatia's request for the handover of Paravinja, whose latest registered place of residence is Obrovac, Croatia.
The Bosnian prosecutorial authorities said they would take further activities in this case in accordance with the the extradition request and in compliance with the Bosnian state court's rulings.
The spokeswoman for the court, Manuela Hodzic, told press that the prosecution's request had been received earlier in the day.
"In light of the fact that the man is already in police custody, a hearing on the Bosnian prosecutorial authorities' request will be convened for the next week," she said.
The spokeswoman said that Paravinja, arrested in Bosnia last weekend, was now kept in detention in East Sarajevo.
The 42-year-old Paravinja, who holds Croatia's citizenship, admitted to killing Bilic upon his arrest in Bosnia.
In 2005, the court in Sokolac, near the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, issued a warrant for his arrest on the suspicion that three years earlier he raped a girl in the eastern part of Sarajevo. Upon his recent arrest, the court in Sokolac set a hearing for that rape case for 6 July.
The spokeswoman Hodzic said that in the previous similar examples it was the practice to finish the ongoing proceedings against suspects in Bosnia and Herzegovina and afterwards to set extradition detention for them. However, the case of Paravinja is more complicated and it remains to be seen what the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina will decide, she said.
Croatian police official Milijan Brkic said on Friday afternoon that during the questioning conducted by Croatian investigators earlier in the day in the "Kula" prison" in East Sarajevo, Paravinja had been co-operative and the police would now analyse his statement.
The Croatian police are still conducting an intensive search for the body of the 17-year-old Antonia Bilic, who went missing on 7 June.
Paravinja is believed to have driven a tow truck on June 7 around 10 am on the Sibenik-Drnis road, moving from the direction of Split to Zagreb. Upon reaching an intersection on the Split-Drnis-Zagreb road, near a bridge over the river Cikola, he saw Antonia Bilic, who was hitchhiking. He turned his truck back, stopped and picked her up. At one moment, while driving towards Split, he pulled up, intending to have sex with the girl. It is believed that his plan failed and that he killed her in order to cover up his attempt. During the interrogation by Bosnian Serb police, Paravinja admitted to having strangled the girl and thrown her body into the river Krka.
In 2002, Serbia sentenced him to four years and six months for rape and attempted rape. Since 2007, he has been beyond the reach of Serbia's judiciary.
