Reuters AlertNet Lite - Norway to send Croat war crime suspect to Serbia

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Norway to send Croat war crime suspect to Serbia

15 Jan 2008 15:06:58 GMT
Source: Reuters

OSLO, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Norway will hand over a Croatian citizen accused of involvement in the 1991 Vukovar massacre to Serbia despite a request from Zagreb to extradite him, Norwegian justice officials said on Tuesday.

Croatia had asked in 2006 for the man's extradition after a court convicted him of murder in Croatia in autumn 1991, the Norwegian justice ministry said in a statement.

But Belgrade demanded he be sent to Serbia to be charged with war crimes, including killings and inhumane treatment of at least 200 prisoners in Vukovar, Croatia, in November 1991, the ministry said.

"The ministry has found that there are sufficient grounds for suspecting that the person concerned has committed war crimes against at least 200 people," the Ministry of Justice said in its statement.

Norwegian law enforcement officials declined to release the name of the 44-year-old man, who they said came to Norway in 1998 and has lived there lawfully.

He is suspected of being a "lower-level perpetrator" of the Vukovar killings, police prosecutor Espen Skjerven told Reuters.

The massacre at Vukovar, near the border with Serbia, is seen as one of the most brutal episodes of the Yugoslav wars.

Besieged at the start of the 1991-95 war, the town fell to Yugoslav forces after a three-month siege.

People, mainly Croats who sought shelter in the local hospital expecting to be evacuated, were taken to a farm building in nearby Ovcara by Serb militias.

The captives were beaten for several hours then transported in groups of 10 to 20 to a site close by, where at least 264 were shot and buried with a bulldozer in a mass grave.

Serbia has been trying 14 former Serb militia members accused of shooting and burying the victims of the massacre. A lower court found them guilty in December 2005, but the Supreme Court ordered a retrial, citing procedural errors.

Croatia has been holding a separate trial.

Norway gave weight to Serbia's extradition request over Croatia's because it "evidently comprises the most serious conditions", the justice ministry said.

The man can still appeal within three weeks to the King of Norway to block his extradition. But if the decision is upheld, the handover to Serbian police will take place as soon as possible, the ministry said. (Reporting by John Acher; editing by Sami Aboudi)

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