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Swiss to extradite woman over alleged murder of boy in Bosnian war

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
Swiss to extradite woman over alleged murder of boy in Bosnian war
Women in 2003 protest the arrest of Naser Oric, with whom Veseli is thought to have fought. Photo: STR/AFP

Switzerland is to extradite a woman sought for the brutal murder of a Serbian boy in the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, justice officials in the two countries said on Tuesday.

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Elfeta Veseli is a rare case of a woman suspected of war crimes in the Yugoslav conflict. She was born in 1960 in Kosovo but lived in Bosnia at the beginning of the war, which claimed 100,000 lives.
   
According to the Balkan media, Veseli was arrested in the Swiss canton of Neuchatel in September and detained in Geneva pending extradition.
   
Her extradition to Bosnia is expected "soon, when technical conditions are met," a Sarajevo prosecutor said.
   
Veseli had fought with Muslim-dominated forces, according to the accusations against her.
   
Veseli is suspected of killing a 12-year-old boy, Slobodan Stojanovic, in Zvornik, eastern Bosnia.
   
The boy and his parents were fleeing from advancing Muslim forces when he returned for his dog and was never seen alive again.
   
"I will never forget the day of June 16th, 1993, when I was called to Zvornik to identify my son," his father Ilija Stojanovic told a Serbian daily at the time of Veseli's arrest, describing signs of torture and brutality on the child's body.
   
A Swiss justice ministry spokeswoman told AFP that no more appeals were possible and that Veseli could be extradited at any moment.
   
Veseli notably fought in the unit of Naser Oric, who was acquitted in 2008 of war crimes charges by the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.
   
He is currently on trial before a Sarajevo court for alleged war crimes committed against Bosnian Serbs.

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