Captain Dragan To Be Extradited To Croatia

Sibenik County Attorney`s Office accuses Dragan Vasiljkovic of violating the Geneva Convention as the Alfa commander.

Australian Federal Court in Sydney turned down the appeal of Dragan Vasiljkovic, aka Captain Dragan, who appealed to being extradited to Croatia, which suspects he committed war crimes against civilians, Croatian soldiers and prisoners as the commander of Serbian paramilitary forces in Croatia, Australian The Age daily reports.

Vasiljkovic appealed to the first-degree provision of the New South Wales District court, dating back to 2007, which claimed he was fit for extradition, argumenting it that he would stand an unfair and biased trial if he was extradited to Croatia. However, judge Dennis Cowdroy rejected the appeal, claiming there were no obstacles to his extradition.

- The evidence before the court establishes that the Croatian judiciary is capable of providing a fair trial to the applicant. The court is not satisfied that the evidence establishes that there are substantial grounds for believing that the applicant may be prejudiced at his trial – judge Cowdroy said.

Captain Dragan lost his money

Vasiljkovic failed to show up at court and his attorneys announced they would decide what to do next after studying judge Cowdroy`s explanation.

“Captain Dragan” was arrested in Sydney as Australian citizen Daniel Snedden on January 20, 2006, based on an international APB, issued out by Croatia. Since then, he has been in a maximum-security prison.

According to the Australian Extradition Law from 1988, Vasiljkovic has the opportunity to appeal three times at various court instances to the New South Wales court provision, however, according to The Age, this might be his final appeal, because he has no more money and as the paper claims, he owes 193,000 dollars to his attorneys.

Tortured, molested and killed…

The Sibenik County Attorney`s Office accuses Dragan Vasiljkovic of violating the Geneva Convention as the commander of the Alfa Serb paramilitary unit. He was suspected of torturing, abusing and killing imprisoned Croatian police and military officers in June and July 1991 in the Knin fortress prison, and in February 1993 in Bruska, near Benkovac