Four men jailed in Bosnia-Croat leaders kidnapping

A Croatian court on Wednesday jailed four men for up to four years for kidnapping of a Bosnian-Croat leader wanted by Sarajevo.

ZAGREB, March 17, 2010 (AFP) - A Croatian court on Wednesday jailed four men for up to four years for kidnapping of a Bosnian-Croat leader wanted by Sarajevo on corruption charges, the HINA news agency reported.

Ante Jelavic, who is a fugitive from Bosnian justice living in Croatia, was snatched in Zagreb in April 2009 and taken to Bosnia by the four men, the state-run news agency said.

The men demanded a ransom of one million euros (1.3 million dollars) for Jelavic, a former member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency. However, he managed to escape back to Croatia within 24 hours of being adbucted.

The court sentenced the masterminds behind the kidnapping, Vlado Curic and Mario Milicevic, to three-and-a-half and four years in prison respectively. Their accomplices Dalibor Progomet and Vlatko Milicevic --the latter being tried in absentia-- were given three years each.

The verdicts can be appealed.

Jelavic, 46, who holds both Croatian and Bosnian nationality, was dismissed from Bosnia's tripartite presidency in 2001 after allegations that he headed a Croatian separatist movement.

In 2005 a Bosnian court sentenced him to 10 years in prison for embezzling public money in 1997 while he was defence minister in the Muslim-Croat Federation, which along with the Serbs' Republika Srpska makes up post-war Bosnia.

The conviction was overturned in July 2006 and a new trial ordered. But Jelavic fled to Zagreb, where he enjoys immunity as Croatia's constitution bars the extradition of its citizens.

Bosnia and Croatia have recently inked a deal paving the way for people convicted of a crime in one state to serve their sentence in the other state to try to put a stop to people with dual nationality evading convictions.

The agreement only concerns people whose convictions are final, which is not the case for Jelavic.