By Greg Hall
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

LEXINGTON, Kentucky, United States of America – An extradition hearing has been set for a Croatian woman, Azra Basic, who had been living in the United States but was charged with murder and torture relating to the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.  Basic has become a naturalized citizen of the United States.  Basic’s attorney, Patrick Nash, has questioned the motion for Basic’s extradition and seeks to dismiss the case.

“I think we’ve got a really valid argument on the dismissal motion, using a treaty of this age in the way they’re using it is fraught with problems,” Nash said, further noting that the statute of limitations has expired on the alleged crimes.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Arehart said in a motion that it is up to the executive branch of the federal government to determine if a treaty is in effect, even though the country has changed names and forms of government.  “The political ideologies of the predecessor and successor states are irrelevant,” Arehart wrote.

Basic is accused of torturing and killing ethnic Serbs at prison camps from April to June in 1992.

Basic had been living in Powell County in Kentucky for several years and working in a nursing home before her arrest in March of this year.  Friends of Basic refer to her as a “big-hearted” person, who was so scarred by her experience in Croatia that she could not watch war movies and cut all ties with her homeland.  They defend her by saying that she was in a place of war and forced to make impossible moral choices.

Now after almost twenty years, Basic faces extradition back to Bosnia.  If convicted of the alleged crimes, Basic could spend the rest of her life in prison.  Basic states that she is not pleased with the current situation but understands the legal process takes time.

People that know Basic and her story state that she was just acting as a human being.  Others are calling for justice for her alleged atrocities.

The United Nations estimates that nearly 104,000 people died in the ethnic strife.  The conflict was the most brutal since World War II.

For more information please see:

Chron.com – Hearing set for woman accused of Bosnia war crimes – 22 August 2011

The Republic – Federal Court hearing set for woman accused of Bosnia war crimes in Yugoslav wars – 22 August 2011

New York Times – Dark past in Balkan war intrudes on new life – 3 April 2011