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Serbian Minister Says No Extradition of Kovacevic
to the US, on Kosovo Asks UN Court Ruling
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
August 15 -- Serbia's foreign
minister Vuk Jeremic on Friday said that basketball player Miladin
Kovacevic,
who beat a University of Binghamton student into the coma in May
and fled to
Belgrade with the help of the Serbian consulate in New York, has a
right under
the Serbian constitution to refuse to return to face trial. "We are
aware
of the fact that officials of the the Serbian government have wronged,"
he
said, adding that the vice-consul and the consul-general have both been
fired
and now face prosecution. But Kovacevic will not be extradited back to
the
United States to face trial.
Moves are
afoot in the U.S. Senate to cut all U.S. aid to Serbia unless Kovacevic
returns
to face justice. Jeremic said that his government has "advised"
Kovacevic to return, telling him that as a basketball player who wants
an
international career, not being able to travel in light of an Interpol
warrant
will not be helpful. "But so far," Jeremic said, Kovacevic does not
want to return.
Inner City
Press asked Jeremic for his government's response to the request that
Kovacevic
come back and face trial in the United States. Jeremic said that no
formal
request for extradition has yet been made, but that if and when one is,
Serbia
will "proceed according to our law" which will have the "effect
of starting proceedings against him in front of a Serbian court for the
thing
that happened."
The
"things" was the beating into a coma of Bryan Steinhauer in a bar in
Binghamton on May 4. Kovacevic was arrested, then released after he
surrendered
his passport and $100,000 dollars bail was posted. The Serbian vice
consul then
issued him an emergency passport and signed travel documents, allowing
him to
flee to Serbia, where he remains.
Vuk Jeremic at the UN, fugative Serbian
basketball player not shown
Jeremic
was in New York at the United Nations to introduce a resolution, to be
voted on
by the UN General Assembly at its meeting that starts September 23,
seeking an
advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice whether the
unilateral
declaration of independence of Kosovo, declared earlier this year, was
legal.
Inner City Press asked Jeremic about the UN
dismantling its mission in Kosovo -- on Monday, the mission will
begin laying
off 70% of its staff -- and about the
mission ceasing
printing travel documents for those who live in Kosovo, despite
the fact that many countries do not accept Kosovo passports. Jeremic
said that
his government will only accept a "reconfiguration" of the UN
presence if it respects the "terrirorial integrity of our province of
Kosovo." While that, too, is viewed by many to be a dubious legal
argument, the apparently final decision by Serbia not to seek to
extradite
Kovacevic triggered a four minute answer from Jeremic, which will be
available
online here.
Footenote: After
bragging about his government's
recent arrest of Radovan Karadvic, who fled from war crimes charges in
The
Hague for more than a decade, Jeremic told Inner City Press that "the
basketball player" Kovacevic could only be extradited to an
international
court. So will International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis
Moreno-Ocampo,
himself embroiled in charges of rape or sexual impropriety in South
Africa,
consider using his court's jurisdiction to get Kovacevic to face
justice?
Watch
this
site. And this (on
South Ossetia), and
this --
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