"Through his active efforts to regain Croatian nationality, he has lost Austrian nationality ex lege," the head of the Corinthia provincial government department for nationality affairs, Gerhard Hauptmann, told the daily.
"We have relayed this view to the public prosecutor," he added.
In the early 1990s Asner applied for and was granted Croatian nationality. He later filed an application to retain Austrian nationality, but withheld from the Austrian authorities that in the meantime he had acquired Croatian nationality. Austrian nationality cannot be retained in that way, so Asner is no longer an Austrian national, Hauptmann said.
Asner served as chief of police under the Nazi-style Ustasha regime in Pozega, 180 kilometres east of Zagreb, in 1941 and 1942. He is suspected of having committed war crimes against civilians, mainly Jews and Serbs.
After the collapse of the Ustasha regime in 1945, Asner fled to Austria where he lived peacefully until 1991 when he returned to Daruvar, Croatia.
His criminal past was revealed by an amateur historian from Pozega, Alen Budaj, while he was researching the history of the Jews in his home town. In mid-2004 he submitted his evidence to the chief public prosecutor, who initiated an investigation into the case before the Pozega County Court. At the same time Asner fled to Austria and is now reportedly living in his son's apartment in Klagenfurt.
In July 2005 the Croatian authorities issued an international warrant for his arrest. Two months later Croatia requested his extradition, but the Austrian Ministry of Justice said that the request could not be granted because under the Austrian law Austrian nationals cannot be extradited to other countries. The Austrian ministry had announced it would issue an indictment against Asner by the end of 2005, but that did not happen.