The Animal Friends Croatia NGO asked Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Wednesday to find a legal solution so that European Parliament employee Ivor Ivanisevic, convicted of sexually abusing a dog, can be extradited to Croatia so that the statute of limitations does not expire in two weeks.

Croatian institutions must prevent the statute of limitations from expiring in this case, the NGO said, calling on Plenkovic to find a legal solution so that Ivanisevic is extradited to Croatia within two weeks and voicing concern that “a dangerous person and perpetrator of serious criminal offences” might remain free.

Eight years ago, at Ivanisevic’s Zagreb address, police found about 100 DVDs and CDs and five e-mail addresses he used to send photos of dogs in sexual poses with men and descriptions of the sexual abuse of his dogs.

He was sentenced in absentia to one year in prison for the killing or torture of animals.

Although he was placed in custody in Belgium last May, Belgian authorities did not extradite him to Croatia, so there is a risk of the statute of limitations in his case expiring on 21 September.

Animal Friends Croatia is asking Plenkovic to convene an urgent meeting of representatives of all relevant institutions so that a solution can be find to punish Ivanisevic.

It has been proved that he tortured and raped dogs, documenting everything on video, Snjezana Klopotan-Kacavenda the NGO said. “He starved the dogs and made food and water conditional on allowing him to rape them. The tortured and starved dogs, with visible scars and injuries, received care at the Zagreb shelter Dumovec, where a female later succumbed to the injuries.”

Justice Minister Ivan Malenica said yesterday his ministry was not involved in the case and that more should be said “by the court which issued the European Arrest Warrant, based on which the competent bodies of the other state should act.”

The NGO said citizens found it incomprehensible that Croatian institutions could not end this case so that justice was served and Croatia’s reputation saved.

A one-year prison sentence for sexually abusing animals and distributing such content is too low, the NGO said, adding that four months ago it sent the Justice Ministry draft amendments to the Penal Code to raise such sentences to five years.

“It’s a disgrace that such a person continues to work in the European Parliament and has ben successfully avoiding a trial in Croatia for years,” said Klopotan-Kacavenda.