The lawyer said that he would advise his client to surrender himself to the UN war crimes tribunal on his own "regardless of what the Split court will rule on the matter" so that he could cut the duration of his stay in custody.
Ljubicic said the Split court's decision to overrule the appeal against Jovic's detention in custody reads that "judging from all he has said so far, Jovic does not show the intention to appear before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and he makes his surrender conditional on ensuring that his proceedings may be led before a Croatian court". That is why the Split court decided to keep Jovic in custody, the lawyer explained.
A panel of judges of the Split County Court is expected to discuss Jovic's extradition to the ICTY most probably next Tuesday.
Ljubicic believes the entire procedure may take several months, which is why he is going to propose to his client to decide on voluntarily surrendering to The Hague.
The lawyer added that the detention in custody affects the mental condition of his client and that he also has some health problems such as heart trouble and diabetes.
Jovic, former editor-in-chief of Slobodna Dalmacija daily, was arrested on 6 October by Croatian police acting on a 28 September arrest warrant issued by the Tribunal, after he failed to appear before the ICTY to enter a plea.
On 9 September, the ICTY issued an indictment against Jovic accusing him of having revealed in his articles the identity and excerpts of a testimony of a protected witness at the trial of former Bosnian Croat military leader General Tihomir Blaskic.