ZAGREB, Jan 5 (Hina) - The Croatian Ministry of Justice on Tuesday +said in a statement it had not received a request from competent +Bosnian bodies to extradite former Bosnian Presidency member +Fikret Abdic.+ Given that no request
had been received, the Ministry of Justice +said it could not make a statement on the matter.+ Today's statement comes in the wake of frequent media inquiries +regarding Abdic following the consent the Hague-based +International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia gave to +Bosnian judicial bodies to initiate criminal proceedings against +Abdic.+ Given the great interest, the Ministry of Justice said it wished to +inform the public about a stipulated procedure which would be +applied in the event a possible extradition request was received.+ "No bilateral agreement on extradition has been signed between the +Republic of Croatia (RH) and Bosnia-Herzegovi
ZAGREB, Jan 5 (Hina) - The Croatian Ministry of Justice on Tuesday
said in a statement it had not received a request from competent
Bosnian bodies to extradite former Bosnian Presidency member
Fikret Abdic.
Given that no request had been received, the Ministry of Justice
said it could not make a statement on the matter.
Today's statement comes in the wake of frequent media inquiries
regarding Abdic following the consent the Hague-based
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia gave to
Bosnian judicial bodies to initiate criminal proceedings against
Abdic.
Given the great interest, the Ministry of Justice said it wished to
inform the public about a stipulated procedure which would be
applied in the event a possible extradition request was received.
"No bilateral agreement on extradition has been signed between the
Republic of Croatia (RH) and Bosnia-Herzegovina (BH). The Ministry
of Justice has no knowledge whether BH is a party to the European
Convention on Extradition. Regulations of the Law on Criminal
Procedure are therefore applied, enabling a non-contractual
extradition, and stipulating conditions of and the procedure for
extradition.
"In the event an extradition request is received, the Ministry of
Justice, in line with the regulations of the said Law, forwards the
request, alongside accompanying documentation, to the competent
municipal court which establishes the existence of legal
prerequsites for extradition. If an appeal is lodged against the
municipal court ruling, another ruling is made by the Supreme Court
of RH. The final ruling on the existence of legal prerequisites for
extradition is submitted to the Minister of Justice, who rules
whether extradition is granted or not.
"An important legal prerequisite for extradition is to previously
establish whether the person whose extradition is requested is a
Croatian citizen," the Justice Ministry statement said.
It also pointed out that the Croatian Constitution stipulates that
a Croatian citizen cannot be exiled from Croatia, have his/her
citizenship revoked, or be extradited to another country.
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