"Late on Thursday afternoon, Serbia sent the request for Purda's extradition via the Bosnian Justice Ministry," the spokeswoman for the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Selma Hadzic, told Hina on Friday.
The Court, however, has not yet received the follow-up documentation which is necessary for this judicial institution to consider Serbia's request.
Purda's hearing, which should have been held by the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday, was cancelled at the defence team's motion after Croatian prosecutorial authorities reported that there were no grounds to launch criminal proceedings against Purda, who has been in prison in Zenica since he was arrested on a Bosnian-Croatian border crossing on 5 January on an international warrant issued by Serbia.
Lawyer Ana Primorac said that Purda's defence team in Bosnia was opposed to his hearing in Sarajevo today.
The results of preliminary inquiries and other investigative steps taken by the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor (DORH) show that there are no grounds for launching criminal proceedings against Purda, DORH said on Thursday. Given that there is no legal basis for launching criminal proceedings against Purda in Croatia, the Osijek County Prosecutor's Office said it would not request his extradition.
Taking into account this information from DORH, today we expressed opposition to his being interviewed, lawyer Primorac said.
She went on to say that in the next 24 hours Purda's defence team in Bosnia would appeal against the prolongation of his detention in the Zenica prison.
Asked about the defence team's strategy, Primorac said that they would first propose Purda's release on 23 January given that DORH had established that there was no ground for any criminal proceedings against him.
She would not speak about the further moves of his defence team.