"Croatia is a law-based country in which courts function in compliance with the Constitution and laws and they will consistently apply the Constitutional Law on Cooperation with the ICTY in the Jovic case just as they do in all other cases," Muljacic said responding to some media allegations that Jovic, a former chief editor of the Split-based Slobodna Dalmacija daily, would very soon be extradited to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) outside the procedure stipulated by the law regulating Croatia's cooperation with the UN tribunal in The Hague.
Jovic was arrested on Thursday afternoon and taken to the District Prison in the southern coastal city of Split, after Split County Court investigating judge Neven Cambi ordered that the he be arrested based on an order from the Hague war crimes tribunal.
On 9 September the Hague tribunal charged Jovic with contempt of court for making public the identity and testimony of a protected witness in the trial of former Bosnian Croat military commander Tihomir Blaskic.
Jovic previously announced that he and his lawyers would use all legal remedies to appeal against his extradition to The Hague.
After the tribunal's spokesman, Jim Landale recently urged for a speedy solution of this case, the Croatian Justice Ministry on Thursday morning sent the tribunal's registrar a letter about all relevant provisions of the Croatian Constitutional Law on Cooperation with the ICTY and procedure before Croatian courts announcing that the procedure in the Jovic case can take several weeks, Muljacic said.