The issue of national identity is taken seriously by Balkan people – including the least serious among them.
Bosnia, Croatia to Sign Extradition Agreement
| 09 February 2010 |
Currently, people who have dual citizenship can flee from Bosnia and run to Serbia and Croatia, or vice versa, even after being convicted by a second instance verdict, and not be arrested.
That is to say, a individual who holds dual Bosnian-Croatian citizenship could be convicted in Croatia and flee to Bosnia. As a holder of Bosnian citizenship, Bosnian authorities would be unable to extradite the individual to Croatia to face justice. The same situation is true for all three countries.
Existing laws in the three countries, and in some cases constitutions, forbid the extradition of individuals who hold the country's citizenship. This was a matter of concern for a long time for Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as for Serbia and Croatia, as people who were sentenced for organised crime and war crimes were able to flee to a country where they held dual citizenship and thus escape justice.
Recently, the presidency of Bosnia adopted an agreement on cooperation in this matter with neighbouring countries and ordered the state justice ministry to sign it.
Barisa Colak, the Bosnian minister of justice, and Ivan Simonovic, his counterpart from Croatia, will sign the agreement tomorrow in Sarajevo, according to the Sarajevo news agency FENA. An agreement with Serbia should follow soon, according to earlier announcements.
The new agreeement should allow convicted persons to serve their sentence in the country where they are arrested or to be extradited to the country that issued the verdict.
According to local media, who reference sources within the Croatian and Bosnian police forces, more than 200 people are currently on the run because of the lack of extradition agreements between the three countries.
