Bosnian Court Stops Case against Ex-Croat Fighter
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Deciding on the request of the Cantonal prosecution to withdraw the indictment, the judge made a decision in the case of Krunoslav Bonic to accept this request and stop the criminal proceedings, the Cantonal court told BIRN.
The Cantonal court also quashed the decision under which Bonic was ordered into custody.
It is unknown why the Cantonal prosecution withdrew the indictment against Bonic.
Bonic was arrested in October last year in Australia, based on an international warrant issued on the request of the Cantonal prosecution in Travnik.
Bonic was charged with war crimes against Bosniak civilians in the Vitez area in April 1993 by the cantonal prosecution of the Central Bosnia Canton as far back as 2006.
But as Australian newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald reported in October last year, he has lived openly in Australia for up to a decade, using his real name, and even laying wreaths at Anzac Day ceremonies as a representative of a Croatian war veterans association in 2011 and 2012.
The Australian authorities said that Bosnia only requested his extradition in March last year.
Bonics lawyer Bernard Collaery had told local media that he will resist the extradition and denied claims that his client abused Bosniaks in wartime, saying that he was a refugee who had been tortured himself.