"At this moment, we have his confession to a crime. We have to act in line with the law and request his extradition," Vekaric said.

The office of the Serbian war crimes prosecutor alleges that Purda took part in the killing of two members of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and the wounding of another during fighting in Vukovar's suburb of Borovo Naselje in 1991, which is why in 2008 Serbia issued through Interpol a warrant for his arrest. On January 5, 2011 Purda was arrested on the basis of that warrant on a border crossing between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and he has been in custody in Bosnia since.

The Office of the Croatian Chief State Prosecutor has said that Croatia will not request Purda's extradition from Bosnia because inquiries carried out in the meantime have shown that there are no grounds for prosecuting him.

Vekaric said the office of the Serbian prosecutor appreciated the contribution of Croatian Chief State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic to the case, adding that it nevertheless needed a statement from Purda in order to make any prosecutorial decision.

Bosnian state prosecutors said at a hearing in Sarajevo on Tuesday that conditions for Purda's transfer to Serbia had been met, while Purda and his attorney Josip Muselimovic opposed extradition, warning that evidence incriminating Purda had been obtained illegally and by torture to which he had been subjected in a Serb-run prisoner of war camp.