The Jerusalem District Court ruled Monday to extradite an Israeli citizen
suspected of participating in a massacre in Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
Aleksander Cvetkovic, suspected of taking part in the mass
murder of around 1,000 Bosnian Muslims during the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre, is
to be extradited to Bosnia, where he faces genocide charges.
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Cvetkovic, a
Bosnian Serb, was arrested in Israel in January following a request by the
government of Bosnia and Herzegovina to extradite him to Sarajevo to face
charges. The request for his extradition was submitted by the Bosnian government
last August.
Cvetkovic immigrated to Israel in 2006 with his Jewish wife,
and received citizenship.
He had lived in Carmiel before his
arrest.
According to the Bosnian authorities, Cvetkovic was part of a
firing squad that executed between 1,000 and 1,200 Bosnian Muslims at the
Branjevo Farm in July 1995.
The killings were part of the Srebrenica
Massacre during the 1995 Bosnian War, in which soldiers of the Serbian Republic
Army under the command of Gen. Ratko Mladic murdered over 8,000 Muslim men and
boys.
Cvetkovic has denied the charges against him, maintaining that he
had served as a driver for Bosnian Serb forces during the war but had not
participated in the massacre.
In ruling that Cvetkovic can be extradited,
Judge Amnon Cohen set out several conditions.
These include assurances by
the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina to maintain Cvetkovic’s security by
holding him in a separate, secure detention wing during his arrest and also if
he is convicted and sentenced to a prison term.
Cohen also asked the
Bosnian government to permit Cvetkovic regular visits by consular
representatives of the Israeli embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He also
demanded that, should Cvetkovic be convicted, the Bosnian court would impose a
sentence in line with that set out in a ruling by the European Court of Human
Rights.
Dan Izenberg contributed to this report.
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