If Jelavic, a former Croat member of Bosnia-Herzegovina's collective presidency, is abroad, authorities in foreign countries should act upon an arrest warrant issued by Interpol, and extradite him to Bosnia-Herzegovina, the spokesman told Hina on Monday.
The press in Bosnia speculate that Jelavic, who was born near the southern Croatian town of Vrgorac and who holds both Bosnian and Croatian citizenship, is hiding in Croatia and that he is willing to turn himself in to Croatian authorities.
Last Thursday, the State Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina sentenced Jelavic to 10 years in prison for embezzlement of funds which Zagreb sent to Bosnian Croats while he was the defence minister of Bosnia's Croat-Muslim entity. The verdict is not final and both the defence and the prosecution can appeal the ruling.
Jelavic was present at the main hearings during the trial but failed to appear in court last Thursday when the panel of judges, chaired by Judge Malcolm Simmons, handed down the verdict.
When the Bosnian State Court released him pending trial earlier this year, Jelavic paid 250,000 euros bail and handed over his Croatian and Bosnian identification documents as a guarantee that he would not run away. He handed over his Croatian passport although the media said he could easily have fled to Croatia bearing just his Croatian ID.
Judge Simmons, who chaired the panel of judges, last Friday contacted the national Interpol office so that Interpol offices in other countries would know about the international arrest warrant.
Croatian Justice Minister Vesna Skare-Ozbolt said on Monday that Croatia could not arrest and extradite Jelavic because of its constitutional provision which prohibits the extradition of Croatian nationals to other countries.
Croatian citizens cannot be extradited to other countries and only when the ruling against Jelavic becomes final, Bosnia can ask Croatia to see that Jelavic serves sentence here in accordance to the law on international legal assistance, the Croatian minister added.
She made no mention of a possibility for Croatia to take over the criminal proceedings against Jelavic, which was also a topic of media speculations in Bosnia.
The Office of the Chief State Prosecutor has said that the treatment of Jelavic is in the jurisdiction of the police.
"All of this is within the jurisdiction of the police," the spokeswoman for the Office, Martina Mihordin, told Hina on Monday.
The Croatian Interior Ministry confirmed that it had been informed on Friday of the Interpol warrant for Jelavic's arrests. The spokesman for the ministry, Zlatko Mehun, reiterated that Croatia cannot extradite its citizens and that the police cannot do anything in this case before they receive orders from the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor or a court.
Mehun also dismissed speculations that the Croatian police were negotiating with Jelavic his surrender.