…Researched and contributed by Gift BADEWO.
Milenko Maric, a Serbian man living in the Normanton area of Derby, UK, has been extradited to Croatia to stand trial on charges of war crimes related to the Yugoslav wars.
Maric was arrested in Derby and was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK while a trial and subsequent appeal took place in Croatia.
Charges Against Maric
Maric was a former member of the Secretariat for International Affairs of Manastir and was charged with removing civilians of non-Serbian ethnic origin from the Baranya region and assaulting them during August and September 1991.
An International Arrest Warrant was issued for his alleged crimes against humanity by a Croatian prosecutor’s office back in 2001.
Extradition and Trial
His extradition was ordered at a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in September 2022.
He was also made to wear an electronic tag and stay in Derbyshire or Leicestershire until a formal date was confirmed.
Maric was extradited on April 5, 2023, and his formal trial date is yet to be announced.
Legal Back-and-Forth
Maric was once an electrician, a professional handball player in the former Yugoslavia, and also served as a police officer during the civil war that led to the breakup of the country in the 1990s.
He was accused by several people of various acts of violence between August and September 1991, including beatings and theft.
In 2017, he was found not guilty of those charges, but that verdict was later overruled by the Croatian Supreme Court.
Maric was fighting extradition to Croatia but lost his appeal to stay in the UK in September 2022 after years of legal back-and-forth.
Father-of-three Mr Maric has denied the allegations against him and claims he is a sensitive man who did only good things during the war.
Speaking to Derbyshire Live in November 2022, he said, ‘In the war, I did only good things.
‘I risked my life to help and protect people. I’ve done so many important things and saved so many lives.’
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