Lawyer Josip Muselimovic, who represents Croatian war veteran Tihomir Purda in Bosnia and Herzegovina, told a news conference on Wednesday that his client refuted claims made by the Croatian Minister of the Interior, Tomislav Karamarko, that Purda had known that an international warrant for his arrest had been issued by Serbia.
Minister Karamarko told a commercial TV station on Tuesday that he had reliable information that Purda was notified that he was on an Interpol Red Notice on 13 July 2007.
"I held long talks with Purda this morning. He is consternated. He is dismayed by Mr Karamarko's statement and asked me to most energetically deny it as an absolute untruth," Muselimovic said at the news conference in Mostar.
According to the lawyer, Purda said he would have been "a total fool" to risk so much by travelling to Bosnia and Herzegovina if he had known for the Interpol notice.
Muselimovic said that Purda had been regularly going to a market near Brcko, northeastern Bosnia, to buy cheaper supplies before his arrest on the border crossing of Orasje on 5 January.
Muselimovic presented a copy of Purda's alleged confession which he made under duress in a concentration camp and which Serbia has treated as evidence for launching proceedings against him for war crimes in 1991 and for asking his extradition from Bosnia.
"The document does not say when the testimony was taken, where and by who. This is an unprecedented scandal," Muselimovic said, adding that this also proved that no formal prerequisites had been met for the approval of his client's handover from Bosnia to Belgrade.
"There is the first and the third page of the alleged testimony, while the second and the fourth pages are missing," he said, adding that he had obtained this document from a Serbian investigating judge and investigators who had interviewed Purda in Sarajevo on Monday.
The lawyer reiterated his expectations that the Serbian prosecutorial authorities drop the charges against Purda and that the appellate chamber of the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina cease the extradition procedure as there are no legal preconditions for Purda's transfer to Serbia.
"I am confident that after the questioning of Petar Janjic and Danko Maslov, Serbia will drop the criminal proceedings against the Croatian war veterans," Muselimovic said.
Purda is currently in custody in Zenica, central Bosnia and Herzegovina, pending a Bosnian State Court ruling on Serbia's extradition plea. The defence team has in the meantime appealed against a ruling on the approval of his extradition.
