The lawyer said that the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina had superficially assessed the law on international legal aid and that it had not taken into account the European extradition convention.
He pointed out that Serbia's request for Purda's handover from Bosnia described him as a fugitive from Serbia.
Acting on request from the Serbian authorities, the Bosnian State Court last Friday extended Purda's detention for up to 40 days, including the time he had spent in custody since January 5 when he was arrested at the Croatian-Bosnian border crossing at Orasje on an international warrant issued in 2007 by Serbia, which wants him on war crimes charges allegedly committed in Vukovar in 1991.
"Serbia's request reads that Purda was on the run from Serbia, Vukovar is not in Serbia. Everything that happened, happened in Vukovar on the territory of the Republic of Croatia. Even if "criminal) act had been committed, only the judicial authorities of the Republic of Croatia are competent to deal with the case," Muselimovic told the Croatian Radio on Monday morning.
Muselimovic said that Purda would like him to convey his message that he was treated fairly and humanly by the prison staff in that central Bosnian city and by the Bosnian judicial officials.
The lawyer went on to say that the complaint against the extended detention was also based on the decision of the Osijek County Office of the Croatian Chief State Prosecutor (DORH) that there was no ground to launch criminal proceedings against Purda.
Croatian war veterans who were together with Purda in the concentration camps in Serbia after Vukovar fell in the hands of Serb rebels supported by the Yugoslav People's Army have said that they were forced to make incriminatory and self-incriminatory statements after being tortured in those camps and that such statements were used by Serbia to issue indictments against them.
Zagreb law school professor Zlata Djurdjevic has recalled that evidence collected by torture are unlawful and cannot serve as a basis for extradition procedure.