"War criminal" allowed to stay in Britain says judge

From the Daily Telegraph

Sending convicted war criminal back to Croatia would be unjust, says judge

By Telegraph Reporter
Last Updated: 1:51am GMT 21/03/2007

A convicted war criminal won his legal battle to stay in Britain yesterday.

Milan Spanovic was sentenced to 20 years in jail in November 1993 after being convicted of war crimes by a court in his native Croatia.

Spanovic, who was convicted in his absence, was found guilty of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm, conspiracy to steal, conspiracy to rob, conspiracy to damage property and conspiracy to damage property by fire.

Spanovic, who was part of the home defence corps of the Yugoslav Army, left Croatia in August 1995 and fled to Serbia. He arrived in the UK in November 1998 after fleeing Croatia with his wife and child.

It was only that year that he learned of the possibility of legal action against him after a neighbour who was mistaken for him was imprisoned and assaulted.

The Croatian government has been seeking his extradition in relation to the war crimes.

However, Senior District Judge Timothy Workman ruled yesterday that, given the passage of time since the offences were alleged to have been committed, it would be "unjust and oppressive" to extradite Spanovic who was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK in September 2005.

At City of Westminster magistrates' court in London, Judge Workman said he took into account that evidence of alleged offences committed during a civil war would be difficult to find or reconstruct.

He said: "Witnesses' memories after such a lengthy period during which radical change took place will have faded or be inaccurate. Inevitably, some witnesses may be unavailable or impossible to trace."

Judge Workman said: "The delay in this case is almost 16 years. I accept that for five or six of those years, the country was in the turmoil of civil war.

"I am satisfied that the passage of time since the offence is alleged to have been committed would now make it unjust and oppressive to extradite the defendant and he is therefore discharged."

The case was re-opened after it was claimed that another man of an identical name to Spanovic's was living in an adjoining village in Croatia and that it was possible that he had committed the crimes.

But Judge Workman said that was not a decision he could decide.

He said: "I am satisfied that the defendant is the person being sought by the Croatian authorities because the particulars given in the request are identical to those given by the defendant in respect of his name, date of birth and identification number.

"If there is any mistake in the identity of the perpetrator of the offences, this is a matter for the Croatian courts when, if this defendant is extradited, the matter comes before the Croatian courts for trial."

Judge Workman also said that he was satisfied that Spanovic was not purposely absent from his trial. He said that he was satisfied that Spanovic would be entitled to a retrial.

Spanovic had "fully co-operated" with British authorities since arriving in the country eight years ago.

Lawyers for the Croatian Government said it would appeal.

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