KLAGENFURT -- Austria will have a
Swiss expert determine if former Croat Ustasha official Milivoj
Ašner is capable of standing trial.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center accused Austria of protecting the 95 year-old Ašner,
after which Austria decided to call in an expert to end the
speculation, a court official stated.
Klagenfurt court spokesperson Norbert
Jenny said that the Swiss expert will be officially called
next week.
The experts is Marc Graf, a forensic
psychiatrist from Basel and a member of the Swiss commission
for determining the psychological condition of criminals.
The Wiesenthal Center in Vienna called
on an expert to be hired, after Austria claimed that Ašner
cannot be extradited to Croatia because he is senile.
Suspicion of these claims increased
after the British tabloid Sun published a picture of him
sitting with fans at a Euro 2008 football match, earlier
this summer.
Ašner, who has been living in Klagenfurt
for years, has given several interviews after having his
picture published.
Croatia wants Ašner, the fourth on
the list of most wanted Second World War criminals, extradited.
He is wanted in connection to crimes
against Serbs, Jews and Romas in Croatia, during the reign
of a puppet Nazi regime there.
Ašner was the chief of the Ustasha
police in Slavonska Požega and is believed to be responsible
for the deaths of hundreds of Serbs, Jews and Romas.
Earlier, a Klagenfurt court threw
out a request for extraditing Ašner to Croatia in 2007, stating
that he was not psychologically fit to stand trial. b92.net
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