War crimes accused to fight extradition

Accused war criminal Dragan Vasiljkovic will face the High Court today in his latest bid to avoid extradition to Croatia.

Mr Vasiljkovic has spent much of the past seven years in prison in Australia after Croatian authorities requested his extradition in January 2006.

The Belgrade-born one-time Serbian paramilitary commander, has launched a series of challenges to the Australian government's decision to allow his extradition for the alleged murders of prisoners of war in the early 1990s.

His lawyers argued for his release last May, saying the Australian government had failed to act on Croatia's extradition request "as soon as reasonably practicable".

Croatian court documents claim he ordered the killing of prisoners of war and led an assault on a village in which civilians were killed during the Balkan war.

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