AZRA BAŠIĆ EXTRADITED FROM USA TO BIH JUDICIARY

On 22 November 2016 at the Sarajevo Airport, the suspect Azra Bašić, born in 1959 in Rijeka, Croatia, was extradited to the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the judiciary of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from the United States of America.   

The suspect Azra Bašić is under investigation by the Special Department for War Crimes and she is suspected of committing War Crimes against Serb victims in the territory of Derventa, in 1992.

The suspect is charged to have personally committed the killing of one civilian person and to have participated in an intentional infliction of severe physical and metal suffering and pain, as well as in the torture of a larger number of Serb civilians detained in the JNA Social Center in Derventa, from April of 1992 until June of 1992, in the territory of Derventa Municipality.

This suspect left the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina after the war and emigrated to Kentucky in the United States of America; afterwards, as a result of joint efforts of the judiciary of Bosnia and Herzegovina and authorities of the United States of America, she was located, deprived of liberty and prosecuted for immigration fraud or giving false information to the authorities of the United States of America about her participation in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Since an Arrest Warrant was issued after this suspect on the basis of the request of the BiH judiciary, the authorities of the United States of America conducted the process of this suspect’s extradition and handover to the judiciary of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina extends its appreciation to the authorities of the United States of America for their assistance in locating, extraditing and prosecuting this suspect.

The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its partner agencies and institutions worldwide are investing intensive efforts aimed at discovering war crimes suspects who attempt to hide from justice abroad, extraditing them to Bosnia and Herzegovina and prosecuting them here; we will continue doing so, all with the aim of fighting the impunity of war crimes.