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Captain Dragan's attorney says his client illegally detained in Australian prison

SYDNEY, Feb 15 (Hina/AP) - A former Serb paramilitary commander wantedin Croatia for alleged war crimes is being detained illegally inAustralia and should be released, his lawyer told the High CourtWednesday and the AP news agency reported.
SYDNEY, Feb 15 (Hina/AP) - A former Serb paramilitary commander wanted in Croatia for alleged war crimes is being detained illegally in Australia and should be released, his lawyer told the High Court Wednesday and the AP news agency reported.

Dragan Vasiljkovic, 51, was arrested by Australian federal police last month and is being held in a Sydney jail pending an extradition request by Croatia.

Vasiljkovic, also known as "Captain Dragan", is accused of ordering the torture, killing or expulsion of Croatian soldiers and civilians while acting as a Serb paramilitary commander during the violent break up of the former Yugoslavia from 1991-95, AP said.

Following a request by Croatian authorities, federal police arrested Vasiljkovic last month in Sydney, some 4,000 kilometers away from his home in the Western Australian state capital, Perth.

At a hearing in Sydney's Central Local Court on 27 January, Magistrate Allan Moore refused Vasiljkovic's request to be released on bail. Vasiljkovic was not in court for the hearing, but watched proceedings via a video-link from a jail in western Sydney.

A hearing to extradite Vasiljkovic to Croatia scheduled for 10 February was delayed pending a challenge in Australia's High Court over his current detention. Judge Moore postponed a hearing in the case until the Australian High Court decides on Vasiljkovic's appeal against the detention ruling.

According to AP reports, a new hearing will be held in March.

Croatian Justice Minister Vesna Skare Ozbolt said earlier this month Croatia would send Australia a formal request for the hand-over of Vasiljkovic as soon as the Sibenik County Court submits all documents on war crimes which Captain Dragan was suspected of.

The former commander of Serb paramilitary units in Croatia, who now holds Australian citizenship, appeared briefly in court last Friday and the court ruled detention without right to bail until the first hearing on January 27.

The 51-year-old 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.

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