Croat court rules to extradite "Greater Albania" drone man
The Supreme Court of Croatia has confirmed the first instance decision of a local court to extradite Albanian citizen Ismail Morina to Serbia.
Source: Tanjug
Morina - who flew a drone with a map of "Greater Albania" attached to it during a football game between Serbia and Albania in Belgrade in 2014 - is wanted in Serbia on charges of inciting ethnic and racial hatred.
The decision, published on the website of the Supreme Court of Croatia, rejected as unfounded the complaint filed by Morina's defense attorney.
This is the final decision of the court - and according to the legal procedure - the final decision on whether Morina will in fact be extradited to Serbia, will be made by the Croatian justice minister.
Morina remains in extradition detention in Croatia's town of Dubrovnik.
The Albanian national is currently under investigation of the Higher Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade, Tanjug reported on Tuesday.
The agency also said that Morina's defense counsel recently submitted to the Croatian police and to "European institutions" a motion for "international legal protection in order to prevent extradition to a third state."
The decision on this request is still pending.
Meanwhile - in "a detailed explanation of the decision rejecting Morina's appeal" - the Supreme Court of Croatia stated that there are no objective circumstances that would indicate that the conditions for extradition had not been met.
"In the specific case, it cannot be justifiably assumed from all the circumstances that the extradition to the Republic of Serbia - simply because of the fact (the suspect) is an Albanian, and because of their political beliefs - would mean they would be discriminated against during the trial, that is, that their position would be aggravated," states the court's decision.
