Croatia has taken over from Bosnia and Herzegovina a case against General Zlatan Mijo Jelic, charged with war crimes against Bosniaks in the 1990s, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) said on Tuesday.

Bosnia and Herzegovina prosecutorial authorities in 2015 indicted Jelic for war crimes against humanity, charging him with involvement in organising and implementing a comprehensive and systematic attack on Bosniak civilians in the Mostar area.

BIRN, a portal specialising in reporting about judicial proceedings, says that the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has received confirmation that the prosecutor’s office in Zagreb has decided to take over the case of the retired Croatian Army and Croatian Defence Council (HVO) general.

BiH prosecutors in October 2019 proposed that the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina ask Croatian judicial bodies to take over the case against Jelic as he lives in Croatia and is beyond the reach of Bosnia’s judiciary.

Jelic has lived in Croatia since 2012 and after living in anonymity for years earlier this year he appeared in Knin for the central commemoration of the 25th anniversary of Operation Storm, a 1995 military campaign in which Croatian army and police forces claimed back areas held by Croatian Serb rebels.

Jelic then received from President Zoran Milanovic a military decoration on behalf of a special brigade of the Bosnian Croat HVO forces, which was under his command and which participated in Operation Storm.