Explaining the court's decision on Jelavic's provisional release, Judge Simmons said that the defence team paid 500,000 convertible marks (approximately 250,000 euros) as bail and handed over to the court Jelavic's Croatian passport and his identity card, issued in Bosnia, as guarantees that he would not flee Bosnia-Herzegovina and that he would regularly appear at his Sarajevo trial pertaining to the Hercegovacka Bank case.
Jelavic, a former Croat member of Bosnia's collective presidency and former chief of the Croatian Democratic Union in the country (HDZ BiH), is charged with embezzling funds which Croatia sent as assistance to Bosnian Croats through Herzegovacka Banka. Jelavic was in custody since January 2004, when special police forces of the Croat-Muslim Federation arrested him in his home in the southern city of Mostar.
Simmons accepted Jelavic's lawyers' request that his Croatian ID also be handed over by noon Tuesday.
Last week, the defence team proposed to pay 100,000 convertible marks as bail, but prosecutor John McNair said this was too low an amount for bail, expressing fear that Jelavic could flee Bosnia if he were freed from custody.
Judge Simmons said on Monday that Jelavic was bound to remain on Bosnia-Herzegovina's territory until the end of the court proceedings in relation to the Hercegovacka Bank case. The indictee is obligated to report to Mostar police twice a day and is not allowed to leave the southern city without the court's previous consent.
"In case Jelavic breaches the conditions imposed by the Court, the Court can decide that he be remanded in custody," Simmons said.
Prosecutor McNair announced that Jelavic's trial for his attempt to set up Croat self-rule in Bosnia-Herzegovina, would commence on 17 May this year. According to the prosecutor, the court has not yet decided whether Jelavic must be in custody for that trial.
Jelavic's trial for his alleged fund embezzlement in Hercegovacka Banka resumes on Wednesday and not on Tuesday as it was previously announced.