US extradites war crimes suspect to Bosnia

By Talha Ozturk

BELGRADE, Serbia

The U.S. has extradited Azra Basic, a 57-year-old Croatian woman accused of committing war crimes during the 90s war, to Bosnian authorities, the Bosnian Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement Tuesday.

According to the statement, Basic was handed over to Bosnian officials at the International Sarajevo Airport, the statement said.

Basic is accused of killing Serb civilians and torturing many prisoners of war in northern Bosnian town of Derventa during the 1992-95 war. She had left Bosnia and Herzegovina after the war and moved to Kentucky in the United States.

Bosnian authorities issued an international warrant for Basic in 2006 and requested for her extradition from the U.S. in 2007.

Authorities in the U.S. took Basic into custody in 2011. She is now expected to be presented before a court in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Hundreds of thousands of people were killed during the Bosnia War, with millions fleeing their homes and over 50,000 women raped.

The three-and-half-year-long war came to an end with the Dayton Accords signed in December 1995 between the now defunct Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.