BELGRADE -- The war crimes prosecution has requested an investigation against 95 year-old Milivoj Ašner.

Ašner is suspected of committing genocide and crimes against humanity during World War II.

According to the Beta news agency, the prosecution has called on the investigative judge of the War Crimes Trial Chamber to take Ašner into custody, and has petitioned the Serbian Justice Ministry to ask Austria for his extradition.

Ašner is accused of the intention to exterminate Serbs and Jews, both independently and with other officials of the then quisling Croat government, and of murder, torture, deportation and persecution on the basis of national and religious differences, as well as of imprisoning Serbs and Jews in concentration camps.

He is accused of the murder of 438 Serb civilians in a camp in Slavonska Požega, the deportation of Jews from Požega to a concentration camp in Croatia, and the deportation of 28 Jewish families from their homes to a concentration camp, where they were tortured for several days.

The investigation into Ašner’s crimes came at the initiative of Simon Wiesenthal Center Director Efraim Zuroff.

An investigation against Ašner for war crimes against civilians is ongoing in Croatia, and the Serbian prosecution has asked for copies of all the documentation from its Croatian counterpart.

Croatia has also requested Ašner’s extradition, a request that Austria has yet to respond to.

b92.net