BELGRADE, April 8 (Hina) - Borislav Mikelic, a Croatian Serb rebel leader, will not be extradited to Croatia but he will be tried in Serbia, Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic said on Tuesday.
BELGRADE, April 8 (Hina) - Borislav Mikelic, a Croatian Serb rebel
leader, will not be extradited to Croatia but he will be tried in
Serbia, Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic said on Tuesday. #L#
Given that Mikelic is a citizen of Serbia and Montenegro, another
country's justice system cannot have precedence over the Serbian
judiciary, the minister said, and added that only the UN war crimes
tribunal at The Hague had supremacy.
Borislav Mikelic was arrested several days ago during a police
investigation into the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister
Zoran Djindjic. According to investigation results, Mikelic was a
liaison between the Zemun mobster clan and people from Republika
Srpska.
Belgrade's daily Blic claims that during the interrogation,
Mikelic denied any connection with organised crime at first but
later admitted "the real nature of his contacts with Zemun clan
leaders".
After the Croatian military and police operation "Storm" and his
departure to Belgrade, Mikelic was at the helm of a committee for
the protection of rights and interests of displaced persons and
return to the hometown. During that time, many of this former
associates and like-minded politicians accused him of
embezzlement, but an official investigation was never conducted.
(hina) it sb