From Marovic to Radoicic: The wanted men who are not extradited

Extradition agreements were signed to prevent the abuse of dual citizenship and the practice of fleeing to neighboring countries to evade justice.

But, in practice, they often don't work.

Although most Western Balkan countries have bilateral extradition agreements, the former president of Serbia and Montenegro is one of many who, by taking advantage of porous borders and dual citizenship, have managed to avoid serving a sentence or facing trial in their own countries.

The former president of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, Svetozar Marović, has been a free man since October 10, after the sentence he was sentenced to in Montenegro for corruption expired.

He fled to Serbia after the court verdict was announced in 2016.

Until the statute of limitations expired, Belgrade refused to extradite him, although it has an agreement with Podgorica for the mutual extradition of citizens accused of organized crime, corruption and other serious criminal offenses.

Retired law professor from Belgrade, Vesna Rakic ​​Vodinelic, tells REL that political connections have a major influence on decisions to reject extradition requests from neighboring countries.

According to her, Marovic should have been extradited.

In addition to people who have evaded justice in neighboring countries, accused and convicted people from different countries around the world - from Romania to Thailand - have also found refuge in the Western Balkans.

Convicted war criminals and “political asylum seekers” in Serbia

Bilateral agreements, which Western Balkan countries began signing mainly in 2010, allow for the extradition of their citizens, under certain conditions related to organized crime and corruption.

However, they do not apply to criminal offenses committed before the signing of the agreements, and in the case of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, not even to war crimes.

Despite an international arrest warrant, Novak Djukic, a former general of the Army of Republika Srpska, who fled to Serbia in 2014, shortly before the announcement of the court verdict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, continues to live freely in Belgrade.

He was sentenced in Sarajevo to 20 years in prison for war crimes, namely for the murder of 71 civilians in the area known as Kapija, in Tuzla.

Belgrade refuses to extradite him, as Djukic also has Serbian citizenship, while Serbia does not extradite its citizens.

Former members of the Army and Police of Republika Srpska, Tomislav Kovač, Mirko Vručinić and Duško Kornjača, also have dual citizenship.

They are just some of the people wanted by Bosnia and Herzegovina's justice system for war crimes, but they live free in Serbia.

Three years after claiming responsibility for the armed attack on the Kosovo Police in Banjska, Milan Radoićić continues to be free in Serbia.

Although Kosovo has issued five arrest warrants for him in recent years, while the United States and Great Britain have sanctioned him for links to international crime, on October 9, he participated in an election rally of Aleksandar Vučić's ruling party.

In addition to Radoicic, other people live free in Serbia against whom Kosovo justice has filed indictments for various criminal offenses, including war crimes.

Some of them are active in public life – they write and promote books, engage in politics, and appear in the media.

Although Pristina has issued arrest warrants for them, Serbia refuses to extradite them, so most are being tried in absentia in Kosovo.

Belgrade does not recognize Kosovo's independence and has no extradition agreement with it.

The European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) is responsible for cooperation between the two countries.

Over the last decade, citizens of Romania, Bulgaria, Thailand and other countries, requested by the judicial authorities of their countries, have also received citizenship, asylum or other forms of protection in Serbia.

One of them is Bulgarian businessman Tsvetan Vasilev, accused in his country of involvement in 144 cases of embezzlement.

He fled to Serbia in 2014, and seven years later he gained political asylum.

Romanian businessman and former MP Sebastian Gica, who fled to Serbia in 2016 after several investigations were launched against him - including on suspicions of corruption - also received political asylum.

Serbian authorities justified granting him asylum on the grounds that he might be persecuted for his political beliefs.

In 2019, the Serbian government also granted citizenship to former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was sentenced in her country to five years in prison for corruption.

"These are rich people, so it seems to me that corruption played a role in the decisions to extradite citizens of these countries," says Rakic ​​Vodinelic.

Chinese national Cui Guanghai – whose extradition is sought by the United States on charges of espionage and smuggling military technology – disappeared from house arrest in Belgrade in 2025, after being arrested on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued at the request of the US.

The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Kash Patel, stated at the time before the US Congress that Serbia was returning accused Chinese citizens to China, instead of extraditing them to the United States.

In 2022, former Ukrainian intelligence officer Andriy Naumov was also arrested in Serbia.

Belgrade rejected Ukraine's request for his extradition, in connection with an investigation into abuse of official position.

Naumov was tried in Serbia and, in 2025, was sentenced to one year in prison for another criminal offense – money laundering.

The Mamić brothers, the most famous fugitives in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The most well-known fugitive from justice living in Bosnia and Herzegovina is Zdravko Mamic, former executive vice-president of the Croatian football club Dinamo Zagreb.

In 2018, Mamić was found guilty of embezzling club funds and sentenced to six and a half years in prison.

Before the court's decision was announced, he fled to Bosnia and Herzegovina – whose citizenship he had previously sought and obtained based on his ancestry.

Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities rejected Croatia's request for his extradition.

In the same way, his brother, Zoran Mamic, a former footballer and coach, who was sentenced in Croatia to four years and eight months in prison for embezzling money from Dinamo, also avoided serving a sentence.

He now works at the Sarajevo Football Club, as an advisor to the club owner.

In 2010, Miroslav Kutle, who had been convicted of three criminal offenses of abuse of power in economic activity, also escaped from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He also has citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina based on descent and today lives freely in this country, where he has built a business empire.

At the end of September, the last case for which Croatian justice was sought was also statute-barred.

The former director of the company "Salonit", near Split, Jozo Qurkovic, fled to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2004, before the indictment for economic crime and embezzlement was filed.

Due to his dual citizenship, he has not been extradited to Croatia to date.

In 2022, a court in Split sentenced him in absentia to three years in prison.

Other people wanted by Croatian justice have also found refuge in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Branimir Gllavaš, convicted in 2009 for crimes against Serb civilians during the war in Osijek, took advantage of his dual citizenship and fled to western Herzegovina before the court verdict was announced.

He spent more than five years in the prisons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, after this country took over the execution of the sentence.

However, in 2015 he was released, after the Constitutional Court of Croatia overturned the conviction and ordered his retrial.

In 2025, in the town of Prozor, in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenian citizen Mladen Samardzija was arrested on the basis of an Interpol arrest warrant.

Slovenian authorities were looking for him, among other things, on suspicion of running a drug smuggling network.

However, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina rejected the request for his extradition, as there is no bilateral extradition agreement between the two countries.

Slovenia officially passed the case to the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where it is currently in the investigation phase.

Who is "hiding" in Montenegro and Kosovo?

Radomir Llaban has avoided serving a prison sentence in Serbia since 2011, while since 2018 he has been a judge of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo.

Llaban has been convicted as a member of the so-called "customs mafia" – a group suspected of bribery crimes.

His name has been on Interpol's wanted list since 2014.

Llaban's integrity has been questioned in Kosovo.

Former President Vjosa Osmani described him as a threat to national security in 2025, while the then Minister of Justice raised suspicions that he was a collaborator with the Serbian intelligence service.

The Constitutional Court of Kosovo previously told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that a judge can be dismissed during his term "only for committing a serious criminal offense or for gross negligence of duty," upon the proposal of two-thirds of the Constitutional Court judges.

The most well-known case in Montenegro is that of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who, before his arrest in his home country in 2023, had spent 15 years in exile due to convictions for several criminal offenses.

During that period, in 2009, he gained Montenegrin citizenship as an honorary citizen, even though he was wanted by Interpol.

Former Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic stated at the time that Shinawatra could not be extradited to Thailand, as Montenegro's Constitution prohibited the extradition of its citizens to other countries.

After returning to Thailand, Shinawatra served his sentence and was released on parole in May 2026, and pardoned in June.

In October 2026, he filed a request for amnesty, with the aim of terminating all legal proceedings and dropping all charges against him./REL