"Australia's Serb community vowed on Monday to fund a battle in the country's highest court to stop the extradition of a former Serb commander accused of Balkan war crimes," the Reuters reported.
The 52-year-old Vaislkovic, also known as Captain Dragan, was arrested in Australia in January last year, and is now in prison pending the outcome of Croatia's extradition request.
"But a group calling itself Serbs for Justice and Democracy said it had raised A$500,000 ($416,000) towards a $1 million fund to take Vasiljkovic's defence to Australia's High Court, saying the case against him was a 'witch hunt'," Reuters reported
Last week a lower court ruled Vasiljkovic was eligible for the transfer to Croatian authorities, giving his legal team 15 days to lodge documents with a federal appeal court.
"If Vasiljkovic loses his appeals against the extradition, Australia's Justice Minister David Johnston will make the final decision on whether to send him to Croatia to face trial," Reuters added.
A 1994 UN report mentions Vasiljkovic as the second most important person in the so-called Republic of Serb Krajina after the infamous military leader Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan.
Vasiljkovic is charged, in his capacity as commander of a special Serb paramilitary unit, with torturing and killing captive Croatian soldiers and police in a prison in Knin in June and July 1991 as well as in Bruska near Benkovac in February 1993.
He is also charged with devising, in agreement with a commander of the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), a plan of attacks in the Glina area resulting in the destruction of civilian facilities, the expulsion of the local population, the plundering of their property, and the killing and wounding of civilians, including a foreign journalist.
The request for Vasiljkovic's extradition, who holds both Australian and Serbian citizenship, was filed by former Croatian Justice Minister Vesna Skare Ozbolt.