Divjak to Stay in Custody for “14 or 15 Days”

“He may be held in custody for 14 or 15 days. I met Divjak twice today. He is feeling well, he is calm and in a good mood… All of the documents which were sent from Bosnia and Herzegovina have been received and handed over to the Court in Vienna,” Hrle said.

In the meantime, the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina has filed a request for the extradition of Divjak to Bosnian judicial authorities, because of an ongoing investigation into the events that happened in Dobrovoljacka Street, Sarajevo.

The extradition request, submitted by the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is based on the facts that an order was issued to conduct an investigation against several suspects and the war crimes, which were committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, fall under the jurisdiction of Bosnian judicial institutions. It also notes that Divjak is a Bosnian citizen.

“Milorad Barasin, Chief Prosecutor with the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, spoke to Haris Hrle, ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Austria, and asked him about the details of Divjak’s arrest. The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina carefully follows the happenings related to this event, considering the fact that this case is being processed by this institution,” the State Prosecution said in its announcement.

Jovan Divjak was arrested at an airport in Austria on March 3 on an Interpol warrant issued by the Republic of Serbia related to suspicion that he participated in the events that took place in Dobrovoljacka Street on May 3, 1992, when a Yugoslav National Army, JNA convoy was withdrawing from the city and several JNA soldiers were killed.

The Serbian Prosecution is conducting an investigation into the events that took place in Dobrovoljacka Street, and several citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina are considered suspects. Available data suggest that Divjak is one of them.

Ejup Ganic, wartime member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was arrested in London last year due to the events that happened in Dobrovoljacka Street. However, after holding several hearings, the British Court rejected Serbia’s request for his extradition, saying that the process was misused and the procedures were used for “political purposes”.

Ganic was arrested on a so-called diffused warrant. It is still not possible to determine under what type of warrant Divjak was arrested.

“General Divjak was not arrested on a red Interpol warrant. Neither the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina nor Interpol have any record of a warrant issued against General Divjak in their registers,” said Srdjan Arnaut of the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Arnaut said that a diffused warrant may have been issued, explaining that diffused warrants were “bilateral warrants submitted by one country to another. In this case, the Republic of Serbia would have submitted it to Austria”.

“There is no way that Bosnia and Herzegovina can be aware of the existence of diffused warrants. The procedure and decisions pertaining to a warrant of this type are regulated by bilateral agreements between the two countries – Serbia and Austria,” Arnaut said.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has submitted some documents to Austrian judicial institutions, including Hague Tribunal findings and a verdict passed down by the London Court pertaining to Dobrovoljacka case.

Arnaut said that according to the verdict passed down by the London Court, the JNA was a legitimate target in Dobrovoljacka Street in 1992 and those who were listed as indictees did not commit any crimes.

Zeljko Komsic and Bakir Izetbegovic, members of the Bosnian State Presidency, addressed the public today in relation to Divjak’s arrest.

Both of them said that Divjak would get any kind of assistance he needed. Komsic stressed that he had spoken to him after his arrest.

“He is calm and he feels well. He requires and expects that the whole issue will be considered within the legal framework and no political connotations will be given to the case. I must say that this case definitely has the dimension of a political case. Authorities from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Austria are involved,” Komsic said.