Australia Serb avoids extradition

Dragan Vasiljkovic was working as a golf instructor in Perth

A former Serb paramilitary leader wanted in Croatia for war crimes has won an appeal against his extradition.

Australia's federal court said he faced a "substantial or real chance of prejudice" if he was sent to Croatia.

Dragan Vasiljkovic was arrested in Perth in 2006 after Zagreb requested his extradition for atrocities during its 1991-1995 war of independence.

The Croatian government accuses Mr Vasiljkovic of ordering subordinates to kill Croatian civilians.

It claims he was involved in the torture and killing of local people and prisoners of war in the rebel Serb stronghold of Knin in 1991 and the southern village of Bruska in 1993.

He has denied committing war crimes but has admitted in media interviews to training Serbian recruits, killing people in combat and interrogating enemy troops.

He was working as a golf instructor in Perth when he was found eligible for extradition in April 2007, but has since mounted several legal challenges.

'Political'

He successfully argued that Croatia was partly seeking to try him because of his political beliefs about the right to self-determination of Serbs in the Krajina region of the Balkans.

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Extradition of a fugitive sought "for or in connection with his race, religion, nationality or political opinions" was not allowed under Australian law, the court said.

The three judges ordered that Mr Vasiljkovic be freed from prison, where he has been held since his 2006 arrest, but they delayed his release until Friday to allow Croatia time to lodge an appeal if it wishes.

In February, a federal court judge dismissed Mr Vasiljkovic's appeal of a lower court ruling backing the Croatian government's extradition request.

Mr Vasiljkovic, 54, is an Australian citizen.

He came to Australia when he was 15, but returned to his homeland to train Croatian Serb rebels in 1991, when Serbs took up arms against Croatia's secession from the former Yugoslav federation.