Purda was arrested in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 5 January on an international warrant which Serbia issued and he was detained in extradition custody in Zenica, central Bosnia, until yesterday when Bosnia was officially notified of Serbia's withdrawal of the extradition request.
The Belgrade-based newspapers carried reports on Purda's release from the Zenica penitentiary on Thursday afternoon, quoting the spokesman for the Serbian war crimes prosecution, Bruno Vekaric, as saying that the criminal proceedings were stopped due to lack of evidence that Purda committed war crimes in Vukovar in 1991. Vekaric added that this decision was made because the military prosecutors had poorly conducted the investigation.
The Press daily quoted today the head of the forum for ethnic relations, Dusan Janjic, as saying that the prosecutorial authorities' move was an act of gross discrediting of Serbia.
The proceedings have lasted very long, and we have swamped Interpol with requests for the arrests with no good arguments. People first go to prison and then we (Serbia) search for evidence, the analyst Janjic said.
The Press daily also quoted political analyst Djrodje Vukadinovic as saying that the latest decision meant the embarrassment for Serbia which scored an own goal.
"If there were omissions in the investigation and if there was not enough evidence, Purda should not have been chased and Serbia should have ceased proceedings earlier," Vukadinovic said adding that given that this had not been done, Serbia should have insisted on his extradition and drop the charges against him here.
Aleksandar Vucic, an official of the opposition Serbian Progressive Party, told the press that the Serbian authorities "have been seriously engaged in defusing protests in Croatia".