The wartime mayor of the southern Bosnian town of Trebinje, Bozidar Vucurevic, who is wanted by Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina on war crimes charges, has escaped from Serbia to Trebinje where he will turn himself to the local judiciary because he wants to have a trial in Bosnia whose citizenship he holds, Vucurevic's lawyer Svetozar Vujacic told press on Sunday.
Vujacic said he spoke to Vucurevic on Saturday and that his client told him he was in Trebinje where he would report to the local judicial bodies on Monday. Vucurevic told his lawyer he was no longer able to stand everything that was happening to him in Belgrade where he lived in poor conditions, without being able to pay for accommodation and health care.
The lawyer said Vucurevic's decision was prompted by "the illegal conduct of the Serbian judiciary", adding that before being transferred to Belgrade Vucurevic spent 44 days in detention, following a decision of the court in Sabac "which has absolutely no jurisdiction in this case."
We will most probably sue the Republic of Serbia, Vujacic said.
Vucurevic was released from custody in Belgrade on June 17 in the continuation of extradition proceedings launched against him after Croatian and Bosnian authorities requested his extradition from Serbia. He was banned from leaving Serbia's territory.
He was arrested at a Bosnia-Serbia border crossing in mid-April on an international warrant issued by Croatia which wants him for his role in the shelling of Dubrovnik in the early 1990s, when he was mayor of the neighbouring Bosnian town of Trebinje. The County Prosecutor's Office in Dubrovnik indicted him in October 2008 for war crimes against civilians in the Dubrovnik area and the destruction of cultural and historical monuments between 1991 and 1995.
He is also wanted by Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he is under investigation for war crimes in Trebinje.
Vucurevic holds Bosnian citizenship. In 2008 he applied for Serbian citizenship but his application was not granted.
