"This will happen very soon, most probably next week, and such requests are submitted within 45 days after the arrest," Skare Ozbolt told Hina, adding that she welcomed the decision of the Australian authorities to arrest Vasiljkovic.
Sibenik County Court judge Dalibor Dukic, who had issued an international warrant for the arrest of Vasiljkovic, ruled detention and launched an investigation, said that all documents pertaining to the case would be sent to the Justice Ministry today.
The former commander of Serb paramilitary units in Croatia, who now holds Australian citizenship, appeared briefly in court today and the court ruled detention without right to bail until the first hearing on January 27, the news agency AP reported.
If the court decides that Vasiljkovic should be extradited, Justice Minister Chris Ellison will make a final decision on whether he will be transferred to Croatia to stand trial, Reuters reported.
The 51-year-old Vasiljkovic is charged, in his capacity as commander of a special Serb paramilitary unit, with torturing and killing captive Croatian soldiers and police in a prison in Knin in June and July 1991 as well as in Bruska near Benkovac in February 1993.
He is also charged with devising, in agreement with a commander of the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), a plan of attacks in the Glina area resulting in the destruction of civilian facilities, the expulsion of the local population, the plundering of their property, and the killing and wounding of civilians, including a foreign journalist.
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Whiting explained that the joined indictment was expected to contain some changes in relation to the amended indictment against Cermak and Markac, which was confirmed on 14 December 2005.
He added that there was a possibility for him to abandon the case because he had to start working on another one, which would move the deadline for the submission of the joinder motion by a week.
Pre-trial judge Kevin Parker said that the joint trial could start already this year.
He explained that the trial chamber had decided that Cermak and Markac did not have to enter their plea to the amended indictment due to the announced joinder of the proceedings and indictments. The two generals should have entered their pleas at today's status conference via video link from Zagreb.
Also discussed at the status conference was the exchange of documents and witness statements between the defence and the prosecution and the establishment of facts that are beyond dispute.
The amended indictment of 14 December charges Cermak and Markac on the basis of individual and command responsibility with persecutions, killings, deportations, inhumane acts, destruction and plunder as crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws or customs of war committed against Croatian Serbs from the Krajina region in the course and after the 1995 Operation Storm.
The amended indictment against Gotovina, issued on 24 February 2004, charges the general with six counts of violations of international humanitarian law committed in the Krajina region in the same period.
All three are charged with committing the said acts as part of "a joint criminal enterprise".
Counsel for the accused previously said that they would not oppose a joinder of the proceedings as it would be unsuccessful, but after today's status conference they said that they would decide on the matter once they saw a draft joined indictment.
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