The wartime mayor of the southern Bosnian town of Trebinje, Bozidar Vucurevic, who is wanted by Croatian and Bosnian authorities on war crimes charges, told Bosnia's FTV broadcaster on Sunday that he did not want to be put on trial in Croatia.
"I don't want to go to Croatia... I want to challenge this shameful indictment before a Bosnian court," Vucurevic told the TV station on the telephone from Trebinje.
Under Bosnian laws, Bosnian authorities cannot extradite Vucurevic to another country since he holds Bosnian citizenship.
Bosnian Assistant Justice Minister Srdjan Arnaut said the Croatian judiciary could give its case file against Vucurevic to Bosnia and Herzegovina whose prosecutorial authorities would then decide on putting Vucurevic on trial.
Earlier in the day, Vucurevic's lawyer Svetozar Vujacic told press that Vucurevic escaped from Serbia to Trebinje where he would report to the local judiciary because he wanted to be put on trial in Bosnia whose citizenship he holds.
The Belgrade High Court on September 7 granted both Croatia's and Bosnia and Herzegovina's request for Vucurevic's extradition.
He was arrested at a Bosnia-Serbia border crossing on April 4 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 Vucurevic 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 denied.
