War criminal extradited to Croatia

The Croatian national of Serbian extraction, who was arrested in Zurich by order of the Federal Office of Justice (FOJ), had been sentenced by the court in Zadar to 20 years' imprisonment for crimes against humanity. The sentence states that during the hostilities in Croatia, after the capture of the village of Skabrnje, this woman, together with other perpetrators, removed mostly women and elderly people who did not put up any resistance from their hiding places, and then killed 43 people. Some of the victims were shot dead, others were run over by tanks.

During the hearing, the woman, who in 1998 had been sentenced in absentia, described herself as innocent and demanded that her case be retried. However, she waived the right to formal extradition proceedings and demanded a simplified extradition to Croatia. The FOJ approved this extradition after the Croatian authorities had confirmed that they would keep the woman under arrest exclusively on account of the crime mentioned in the request (rule of speciality) and that according to domestic law a new proceeding is possible after a sentence that was pronounced in absentia.