US extradition request shocks defense team as Mevlid Jasarevic faces end of 15-year prison sentence

Jasarevic was slated to be freed this week after serving his full sentence for terrorism, stemming from his automated rifle attack on the US Embassy on October 28, 2011. Notably, the Court acquitted Jasarevic on Monday in a first-instance verdict regarding allegations that he threatened staff and attempted to obstruct official duties at the State Prison in Vojkovici. Immediately following that acquittal, the US Embassy formally requested his extradition based on a 2012 indictment.

Appearing at the hearing, a visibly devastated Jasrevic expressed his anguish over the sudden request, stating that he had expected to reunite with his wife and son today.

"Please give me just a month or two with my son," Jasarevic pleaded during the hearing, adding:

"I feel sorry for my wife, she waited for me for 15 years, they could have at least notified me earlier because she expected me home today."

Speaking to reporters after the proceedings, defense attorney Alma Tabakovic maintained that the US proposal is entirely unfounded and politically motivated.

"Which is even shameful and I will not be mild and I will say that we are dealing with political persecution in this specific case," Tabakovic stated, explaining that the request arrived at the eleventh hour:

"The request came on the last day when the hours were already counting down to his release. Yesterday at 3:15 pm we received this request, the same day after Mevlid Jasarevic received an acquittal in his favour in the proceedings conducted before the Court of BiH for obstructing an official in the performance of official duties where the defense's thesis was accepted in full and he was acquitted with the reasoning that the defense pointed out throughout the entire procedure. I believe that the last day was waited precisely to see how that procedure would result. After he received it and after it became more than clear that Jasarevic is walking free today after serving his complete sentence without a single day of clemency. I could in a way perhaps equate this with Kafka's The Trial."

Recalling international legal standards, she emphasized the prohibition against double jeopardy.

"And our legislation in the same way implies that double jeopardy is prohibited according to the principle 'ne bis in idem' (trans. not twice for the same), so what is happening now is just a masked indictment consisting of 10 counts that are merely named differently, but enter into the construction of the criminal offense for which my client has already been prosecuted, already convicted and served the entire sentence," Tabaković stated.

She further challenged the legal validity of the 1901 Extradition Treaty between the Kingdom of Serbia and the United States, arguing it provides no legal foundation for the current request.

"It was originally concluded by the Kingdom of Serbia with the US, and after that it was successively accepted by all other states so that was the case during the Kingdom of SCS, Yugoslavia and then in all individual states, but other states like Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro have concluded new bilateral agreements under which criminal offenses like this one are covered by that agreement. From that agreement of 1901, this criminal offense charged against my client does not arise. Terrorism is not even covered by it because it did not exist as such. These are criminal offenses such as thefts and even piracy, slave trade and acts that were current 125 years ago. Now what is being charged against my client I believe absolutely does not fall under any criminal offense that was covered by that agreement in 1901," Tabakovic explained.

The defense also pointed out ambiguities regarding the specific victims named in the indictment.

"Because the question arises which citizens and officials out of those 100 to 150 whether they are diplomats, military personnel or overseas employees who actually are an integral part of the US Embassy were targeted? Which one of them individually did Jasarevic try to kill? He attacked the US Embassy and the building, he fired from the territory of BiH as the defense states and that is what is indisputably established and already judged. And in that way it precisely follows that Jasarevic was not on the territory of the US," she emphasized.

Concluding her remarks, Tabakovic denounced the move as a profound injustice:

"As far as I know, this was not mentioned and the fact of the filing of the indictment from April 2012 remained entirely unknown. No matter how inappropriate that statement may have sounded, but I said that if they had sent that extradition request by carrier pigeon or in a bottle floating across the ocean it would have reached BiH, i.e., Jasarevic, by now. This is a political persecution and a huge injustice toward a man who spent 15 years in prison, i.e., serving a sentence for a deed he indisputably committed and for which he was convicted in this country. His family expected him home today - his wife who waited for him all this time, his son who has just turned 16 and with whom he expected and hoped to spend time together. Mevlid is unfortunately devastated by this decision. No one supports what was done, but Jasarevic back then as a 22-year-old obviously, as he himself said today, was a 'weapon' of third parties who used the opportunity against him to score points for some ideologies of theirs and we believe that Jasarevic like any other person who serves his sentence should get a new chance, and not face being imprisoned for the rest of his life perhaps in some 'new Guantanamo'."

Meanwhile, the Prosecutor's Office of BiH requested the imposition of extradition detention, citing flight risk and asserting legal grounds under the 1901 treaty for crimes allegedly unaddressed by his prior sentence. The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina will determine whether to order extradition detention while deliberating on the US request.