Croatian lawyer Darko Stanic has been appointed to defend Australian man Daniel Snedden, known in Croatia as Dragan Vasiljkovic, who was successfully extradited to Croatia yesterday afternoon to face allegations on war crimes.
Mr Stanic is going to meet Mr Snedden today for the first time at the Croatian county court in Split.
He told SBS’s Croatian program that Mr Vasiljkovic had not yet been charged.
"There is a legal solution to conduct an investigation against Mr Vasiljkovic," he said. "After completion of the investigation it will be decided on the indictment. It will be very soon, considering the state attorney's office already had 20 years to collect all the evidence they consider to be the foundation of an indictment. So, charges will be raised soon."
He said Croatia was holding him on the basis that an investigation was underway.
"Croatia keeps him imprisoned on the basis of the investigation, which is characteristic for the European legal circle and is based on the European Convention on Human Rights," he said.
The alleged war crimes date back to the 1990s war in Croatia.
Mr Snedden has been fighting extradition in the Australian courts since Croatia requested that he be extradited in 2005.
The 60-year-old holds dual Australian-Serbian citizenship.
The maximum sentence for the offenses he is charged with is 20 years in prison.
"If it is determined that he truly committed these crimes and if he is found to be 20 years in prison, then this is the time he spent in an Australian extradited Australian detention of almost nine years would be counted against that sentence, which means to make him upwards in the case of the remaining serve a prison sentence of 11 years," Mr Stanic said.
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