Australian court’s decision is disappointing

Ruling against Vasiljkovic’s trial in Croatia does not come as a surprise.

Croatia does not have an extradition agreement with Australia , so ruling against Vasiljkovic’s  trial in Croatia does not come as a surprise.

- Personally, this decision comes as a big disappointment for me since I started the process and encountered many difficulties along the way, former minister of Justice Vesna Skare-Ozbolt, says.

At the start of extradition process Skare-Ozbolt received threat mail from Dragan Vasiljkovic in which he wrote that if she will have war if she is looking to start one.

Australian judges Geoffrey Flick, Annabelle Bennet and Neil McKerracher Bennet justified their decision by saying that there were substantial grounds for believing that Mr Vasiljkovic may be punished or imprisoned in Croatia due to Croatia court's national bias.

Captain Dragan shall not be extradited to Croatia

Skare-Ozbolt sees another reason for their decision and that is a lack of current expedition agreement between the two countries. The only existing agreement dates from the time Croatia was part of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians and this agreement changed very little over the years.

Even tough Australian ruling surprised me, I did get a warning at the start of the process that this was a very sensitive issue and there might be some difficulties along the way. She also added that she disagrees with statement that Vasiljevic’s trial in Croatia would be unfair because of court’s national bias. Croatia regularly prosecutes war criminals regardless of their national background – she says.

‘Their evaluation was faulty, but  not surprising’

- Even war crimes court in Haag acknowledges our judiciary ability to prosecute war crimes – Vesna Skare-Ozbolt concludes.

Ingrid Anticevic Marinovic, current minister of Justice, says that media presented Vasiljkovic’s expedition as finished case. Different Croatian ministers also talked of if his arrival as if this was a matter of hours and they did not treat the case as carefully as they should.

Asked if she believes that Australian Federal Court has a twisted view of Croatian Judicial System, minister replied that she personally believes that their evaluation was faulty, but she also adds that their skepticism does not come as a surprise.

‘We need a good appeal and we need it ASAP’

- We give the impression that our judiciary system is incompetent and this is a result of bad reputation in Europe as well as realistic problems our administration faces. The fact is that our citizens are not happy with the current state of affairs and the records show that our judiciary system is currently at its lowest  – Anticevic Marinovic says. As far as Vasiljovic case goes, our experts are currently working on composing a well augmented appeal and we plan to submit it to the court ASAP – Ingrid Anticevic Marinovic concludes.