An Australian national, Vasiljkovic, who is also known as Captain Dragan, was a commander of Serb paramilitary forces in Croatia between 1991 and 1993. He is suspected of involvement in war crimes against civilians and Croatian army prisoners.
Vasiljkovic was arrested in Sydney on January 20 on an international warrant issued by Croatia. He appealed with the Australian High Court, claiming he was being illegally detained because no formal extradition treaty existed between Australia and Croatia.
The High Court dismissed the appeal in June, upholding the opinion of the Australian government that Vasiljkovic could be extradited under the Commonwealth Extradition Act, so the case continued before a local court in Sydney.
Vasiljkovic is now in custody and did not appear at a brief hearing on Wednesday. His lawyer Simon Beckett applied to have his client's case adjourned for four weeks and said he expected any extradition hearing to be heard over a period of a week.
Magistrate Allan Moore said any extradition hearing taking up to a week was unlikely to be heard until November. He adjourned the matter to Monday for further mention, The Australian said.
The Sibenik County Prosecutor had charged Vasiljkovic with violations of the Geneva Conventions for allegedly torturing and killing Croatian army and police prisoners in Knin in June and July 1991 and in Bruska near Benkovac in February 1993.
Vasiljkovic is also alleged to have taken part in planning an attack on the police station in Glina and the takeover of Glina's suburb of Jukinac and the villages of Gornji Vidusevac and Donji Vidusevac. The attack resulted in civilian casualties, including a foreign journalist, and property damage.