Government appeals 'Captain Dragan' extradition ruling

A HIGH Court appeal will be lodged today against the decision to block the extradition of an Australian accused of war crimes.

A HIGH Court appeal has been lodged today against the decision to block the extradition of an Australian accused of war crimes as he led a Serbian paramilitary unit in the Balkans war of the early 1990s.

A spokesman for Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor told The Australian said the government had sought special leave to appeal against the Full Federal Court ruling that Dragan Vasiljkovic could not get a fair trial.

Mr Vasiljkovic was arrested by Australian Federal Police in January 2006 following an extradition request by the Croatian government, who said overnight that they had been “in permanent” contact with Australian prosecutors.

He was known as “Captain Dragan” while a Serb military commander and was living under the name Daniel Snedden when arrested. He was released from custody last Friday after the Government didn’t meet the Full Federal Courts’ deadline for lodging an appeal by 3pm on that day.

“When the (High Court) register opens this morning, we will be lodging an appeal,” said the spokesman for Mr O’Connor.

Mr O’Connor’s office confirmed the appeal only after Croatian Justice Minister Ivan Simonovic told The Australian that “if Croatia was entitled to appeal on decision not to extradite Dragan Vasiljkovi, it would certainly do so”.

“Representatives of the Croatian Ministry of the Justice and Office of the Australian prosecutor General (sic) are in permanent contact,” said Mr Simonovic, in a prepared statement.

“Based on evidence and arguments supporting the leave to appeal and appeal forwarded to the Prosecutor General (sic), Croatian authorities firmly believe that the special leave to appeal and the appeal will be launched and that the decision of the High Court of Australia will be in favour of the extradition.

“Of course, final decisions regarding extradition of Dragan Vasiljkovi¿ lay within the competence of the Australian authorities, whom we highly regard and respect. “

The High Court’s next scheduled day for special leave appeals is October 2, but there is nothing to stop it bringing the matter forward. If the court grants leave, the case would likely proceed to a hearing with all seven judges.

Mr Vasiljkovic's legal team had argued the justice system in Croatia would be prejudiced against him because of his “political beliefs” – which, the court was told, are that the Krajina Serbs have a right to return to their homeland and are entitled to an independent state.

Serbs constituted a majority in the Krajina region until they fled advancing Croatian military forces in 1995.

In their written judgment, the judges observed that the extradition request made by the Croatian government referred specifically to the conflict “between the armed forces of the Republic of Croatia and the armed aggressor's Serbian paramilitary troops of the anti-constitutional entity the `Republic of Krajina”'.

The Federal Court also heard that, according to a 2006 report by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, 29per cent of Serbians who faced war crimes trials in Croatia were convicted, as opposed to 7.5 per cent of Croatians who faced trial on similar charges.

The judges also ruled there “are substantial grounds for believing that he may be punished or imprisoned and thereby detained or restricted in his personal liberty, and such treatment arises by reason of his nationality or political opinions”.