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         Bosnia Asks Swiss to Hand Over Wartime Defender of Srebrenica

   by Reuters

   Bosnia asked Switzerland on Monday to hand over the wartime Muslim
   defender of Srebrenica and not extradite him to Serbia, in a row that
   threatens to overshadow the 20th anniversary of the massacre.

   Naser Oric, a hero to many Bosnian Muslims, was arrested by Swiss
   police last week on a warrant issued in 2014 by Serbia accusing him of
   war crimes against Bosnian Serbs in the Srebrenica region during the
   1992-95 Bosnian war.

   A Bosnian army commander at the time, Oric was in charge of organizing
   the defense of Srebrenica, a designated United Nations "safe area,"
   from Bosnian Serb forces.

   The town fell to the Bosnian Serbs in July 1995 and more than 8,000
   Muslim men and boys were massacred in the days that followed. It was
   Europe's worst mass killing since World War II.

   Serbia said on Sunday it had filed an extradition request.

   Bosnia's state prosecutor's office, in a statement on Monday, said it
   had filed its own request for Oric to be returned to Bosnia, arguing
   that his extradition to Serbia would jeopardize a separate case against
   him in Bosnia.

   Oric stood trial at a U.N. court in The Hague for crimes against
   Bosnian Serbs and was acquitted of all charges in 2008.

   A spokesman for the Swiss justice ministry said the formal Serbian
   request arrived on Monday. Geneva prosecutors would question Oric about
   it and then the ministry would decide how to proceed based on this and
   any comments from his lawyer.

   The Bosnian request had not yet arrived, he said.

   A European accord spells out how to handle conflicting claims for
   extradition and Swiss authorities would have to consider all the
   circumstances, he said.

   "If the request is based on the same crimes, then the place the crimes
   were committed plays an important role in deciding to which country to
   extradite," the Swiss spokesman said.

   The possibility of Oric's extradition to Serbia has angered Muslim
   Bosniaks and may yet derail plans by Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar
   Vucic to attend a ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the
   Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia on July 11.

   "We appeal to Bosnian politicians to end diplomatic relations with
   Serbia and demonstrate that we will not stand silent while innocent
   people who defended this country get arrested," said Munira Subasic of
   the Mothers of Srebrenica association.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/bosnia-srebrenica-naser-oric/2833423.
   html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/bosnia-srebrenica-naser-oric/2833423.html