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Israel Extradites Bosnian Serb for Genocide

Aleksandar Cvetkovic to be tried for alleged ties to 1995 Srebrenica massacre

by
Romy Zipken
August 16, 2013
Aleksandar Cvetkovic (C), is brought into the Jerusalem district court on August 1, 2011 to a hearing regarding Israel's state prosecutor request to extradite the Bosnian Serb who obtained Israeli citizenship through his Jewish wife.( GALI TIBBON/AFP/Getty Images)
Aleksandar Cvetkovic (C), is brought into the Jerusalem district court on August 1, 2011 to a hearing regarding Israel's state prosecutor request to extradite the Bosnian Serb who obtained Israeli citizenship through his Jewish wife.( GALI TIBBON/AFP/Getty Images)

Israel’s Justice Ministry announced on Thursday that it had extradited Aleksandar Cvetkovic, a Bosnian Serb, who has alleged ties to the Srebrenica massacre during the Bosnian War in July of 1995, Reuters reports. About 8,000 Muslims were murdered. It is known as the worst massacre on European soil since World War II.

Aleksandar Cvetkovic, who had lived in Israel since 2006, was arrested in January 2011 on an international warrant after witnesses testified that he participated in the shooting of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Europe’s worst atrocity since World War Two.

Cvetkovic denies the charges, claiming he was just an army driver. Because he is married to a Jewish woman, he was granted citizenship in Israel. His extradition is Israel’s first based on a genocide case.

The Bosnian government requested Cvetkovic’s extradition back in 2010, but he appealed the charges to the Supreme Court, the Jerusalem Post reports.

In addition to noting the poor quality of prison conditions in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the defense argued that Zvtkovic would not get a fair trial because of the politics surrounding the accusations against him and that he feared for his life when fellow prisoners learned of what he was accused.

The Supreme Court rejected his appeal, and the Justice Ministry said that with a group of eight, Cvetkovic killed 1,000 Muslims, the Global Post reports.

Romy Zipken is a writer and editor at Jewcy. Her Twitter feed is @RomyZipken.