ZAGREB, May 24, 2019 – Justice Minister Drazen Bošnjaković said on Friday that the extradition of former Dinamo football club executive Zdravko Mamić from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Croatia could not be made conditional on the extradition of former Sarajevo judge Lejla Fazlagić to Bosnia and Herzegovina because those were two separate cases.
Bošnjaković said that the Justice Ministry would request Mamić’s extradition after it obtains the necessary documentation from the court in Osijek which is in charge of the case.
The Osijek County Court earlier this week upheld a new indictment which the Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) filed against Mamić and six more people on the suspicion that they had defrauded Dinamo of 200 million kuna from 2004 to December 2015, when Mamić held a few executive posts in that Zagreb-based football club.
Asked if he considered it to be unlawful, as Mamić’s defence claims, that the court had ruled on investigative custody for Mamić two times, Bošnjaković said that that was a question for experts, the prosecutorial authorities and the relevant courts.
Reporters also asked Chief State Prosecutor Dražen Jelenić if he knew where Mamić was, to which he said that the court that had issued the warrant for Mamić’s arrest was in charge of the extradition procedure.
“After it is completed, the Justice Ministry will seek Mamić’s extradition from Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Jelenić said, adding that the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor was not involved in the procedure.
The Croatian media have been speculating lately that Mamić’s extradition could depend not only on a decision by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina but also on whether Croatia would in turn extradite Lejla Fazlagić, a former Sarajevo judge suspected of abuse of powers, money laundering and fraud, who has been hiding in Croatia.
More news about Zdravko Mamić can be found in the Sports section.
