Report: Former Bosnian Croat leader released by kidnappers (Roundup)

Apr 9, 2009, 20:14 GMT

Zagreb - A shadowy former Bosnian Croat leader emerged Thursday evening unharmed from an abduction a day earlier, Croatian media reported, quoting 'informed sources.'

The one-time member of the Bosnian presidency, Ante Jelavic, was abducted Wednesday in Zagreb. The kidnappers reportedly called from Bosnia, demanding 1 million euros (1.32 million dollars), but eventually released him without collecting the ransom.

Jelavic was in police custody at an unspecified location in Croatia, media reports said, but the interior ministry in Zagreb refused to comment immediately.

The case may eventually embarrass Croatian authorities. Jelavic served as the Croat representative in the Bosnian tripartite presidency in 1999-2001, but is now wanted by that country's justice to stand a corruption trial.

A hardliner who had pressed for greater Croat autonomy in the volatile, war-scarred country, he was removed from the post by the international community's representative at the time, Wolfgang Petritsch.

He was tried and sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2005 for abuse of authority and embezzlement in 2005, but fled Bosnia and found shelter in neighbouring Croatia, averting extradition and prison owing to his dual citizenship.

Though his appeal succeeded and a new trial was ordered, he remained in seclusion in Croatia - at least that was the case until his kidnappers apparently smuggled him across the border to Bosnia.

It also seems that Jelavic illegally crossed back into Croatia quickly after he emerged from captivity under so yet-to-be-explained circumstances.