Croatia blocks extradition of suspect in Hamas man’s killing

Croatia’s top court blocks the extradition of a Bosnian man to Tunisia over the alleged murder of an aerospace engineer, described by the Palestinian terror movement Hamas as one of its members.

Mohamed Zaouari, 49, was killed in a hail of bullets outside his house in Tunisia’s second city Sfax in December 2016.

“The Supreme Court accepted the appeal of the suspect… and rejected the request for extradition from the Republic of Tunisia,” the court says in a statement.

At a hearing on May 8, the lower court said it had established that “legal preconditions” had been met for the extradition of Alen Camdzic, 46, who has been named by local media.

The final decision will be made by the justice minister.

The suspect was arrested in Croatia on March 13 on an international warrant and has been held in custody since, the court, in Velika Gorica, near Zagreb, said in a statement.

Camdzic’s arrest was announced by Tunisian prosecutors, who said they believed that two people with Bosnian passports had carried out the assassination.

The second suspect, Elvir Sarac, was briefly detained in Sarajevo earlier this week, but released when a court refused to hand him over to Tunisia, saying there was no extradition deal between the countries.

Shortly after his death, Hamas said he was a drone expert who had worked for the “resistance” for a decade for a decade, before being killed by “Zionist treachery.”

Israel has not responded to accusations that it was behind the killing.

— AFP