Ministry spokesman Christoph Poechinger said on Thursday evening the Carinthian government's citizenship department had adopted a decision stripping Asner of Austrian citizenship.
The spokesman said he did not expect the court in Klagenfurt to take long to decide on the extradition. He added the Asner case was no longer in the jurisdiction of the Austrian Justice Ministry but in that of the provincial court of Carinthia.
In the early 1990s Asner applied for and was granted Croatian citizenship without having applied in time for keeping Austrian citizenship. He applied for the latter subsequently but failed to inform the Austrian authorities that in the meantime he had been granted Croatian citizenship. Consequently, Asner could not keep his Austrian citizenship.
Croatia requested Asner's extradition from Austria last September but the request could not be processed because Austrian law stipulates that Austrian citizens cannot be extradited.
Asner is suspected of having committed war crimes against civilians as a police chief in Slavonska Pozega, Croatia, in 1941-42.