As soon as he arrives in Croatia, Gudelj will be transferred to Osijek, where he will await retrial.
Sources at the ministries of justice, internal and foreign affairs and the State Prosecutor's Office confirmed that Gudelj would be handed over to Croatia, but would not reveal the date of his arrival. Speaking on condition of anonymity, several sources in the judiciary said that his extradition was expected this weekend.
Gudelj was arrested in Sydney in September 2006 based on an extradition warrant issued by Croatian authorities. In January 2007, he agreed to be extradited, but his transfer first had to be approved by the Australian government.
Gudelj was sentenced in 1994 to 20 years in prison for triple murder and an attempted murder. The trial court found that he fired 30 bullets from his Kalashnikov machine-gun at a car carrying the Osijek police chief to negotiations on the normalisation of relations with rebel Serbs. Gudelj was sentenced in absentia because he fled the country shortly after the murders.
He was arrested by German police and extradited to Croatia in 1996. The Croatian Supreme Court then quashed the trial verdict and returned the case to the Osijek County Court. However, in May 1997, the Supreme Court suspended the proceedings and granted Gudelj amnesty in line with the General Amnesty Act. Explaining its decision, the court said that the murders were directly linked with the state of war and that Gudelj had committed them as a member of reserve police forces, while guarding a police checkpoint.
After his release, Gudelj left the country for Australia. Reihl-Kir's widow in June 1997 filed a constitutional complaint and the Chief State Prosecutor appealed against the ruling granting Gudelj amnesty.
Three years later the Supreme Court found that there had been no legal grounds to grant Gudelj a pardon and that the murders cannot be linked with the aggression against Croatia, armed rebellion or conflict. However, the court could not change its previous final ruling.
In March 2001, the Constitutional Court upheld the complaint filed by Reihl-Kir's widow and returned the case to the Osijek County Court for a retrial.
In her frequent public statements Jadranka Reihl-Kir has blamed Branimir Glavas for her husband's murder, accusing the government of lacking the political will to solve the case. Glavas has denied on several occasions any connection with the case.