Asner, 92, who has dual Croatian and Austrian citizenship, is suspected of involvement in war crimes against civilians, mainly Jews and Serbs, while he served as chief of police in Pozega in 1941 and 1942 during the rule of the Nazi-style Ustasha regime in Croatia.
After the Ustasha regime collapsed at the end of the Second World War in 1945, Asner fled to Austria and lived peacefully there before returning to Croatia in 1991.
His alleged criminal past was discovered by Alen Budaj, an amateur historian from Pozega, while researching the history of the Jewish community in his town. In mid-2004 Budaj submitted all the evidence he had found to the Office of the Public Prosecutor, which then launched an investigation before the County Court in Pozega. At the same time Asner again fled to Austria and is now reportedly living in his son's apartment in Klagenfurt.
An international warrant for Asner's arrest was issued in July this year following an order by the Pozega court.
On 22 September Croatia asked Austria to extradite Asner, but the Austrian Ministry of Justice said that the request could not be granted because under the Austrian law Austrian nationals could not be extradited to other countries.
Der Standard said that the Austrian Ministry of Justice hoped that Asner would be indicted before the end of the year.
The newspaper said that Helmut Jamning, the public prosecutor in Klagenfurt, was currently examining the comprehensive material provided by Croatia about Asner's activities during the Second World War.
According to Der Standard, the Austrian judiciary has not done much about prosecuting suspected Nazi war criminals.