PRESS RELEASE
Prosecutor Requests Investigation against Milivoj Ašner

Further to a request lodged by the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor, an investigative judge of the Belgrade District Court’s War Crimes Chamber is on the point of launching investigation against Milivoj Ašner (95), an Austrian citizen suspected of involvement in the crimes committed in Požega (Croatia) between May 1941 and the latter part of September 1942. According to the Prosecutor’s charges, Ašner, at the time head of the Požega police station, is criminally responsible for offences recognized as genocide and crimes against humanity.

The Prosecutor claims that there are reasonable grounds for suspicion that Ašner, intent on the total destruction of the Serb and Jewish ethnic and religious communities, acting alone or in concert with other government structures, ordered the killing, extermination, persecution, expulsion, torturing and forceful displacement of Serbs and Jews. Ašner also personally engaged in the execution of similar orders that he received from his superiors – officials of the then Independent Republic of Croatia (NDH).

In August 1941, as many as 438 civilians, who had been arrested in the area of Derventa and Bosanski Brod, were severely beaten and then transferred to the concentration camp in Slavonska Požega, where they were killed because of their alleged participation in a revolt against the state authorities. Additionally, Ašner is suspected of deportation of Požega Jews to the so-called “death camps“ in Croatia – Gospic, Jasenovac and Ðakovo.

Like in the cases against Egner and Kepiro, the War Crimes Prosecutor has opened pretrial proceedings in the Ašner case upon the initiative taken by Dr. Efraim Zuroff, head of the Jerusalem Simon Wiesenthal Center. Since pretrial proceedings related to Ašner’s role in the said acts and his responsibility for war crimes against civilian population are currently under way before the District Court in Požega (Croatia), copies of all documentary materials have been obtained from the Požega District Prosecutor.

The Serbian Prosecutor has urged the Court to open investigation against Ašner without hearing the suspect, and to rule his detention. In the meantime, the Prosecutor suggests that the Serbian Ministry of Justice should seek Ašner’s extradition from Austria.
Public Relations Service
Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor
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POŽEGA - Županijski sud u Požegi donio je rješenje o provedbi istrage nad Milivojem Ašnerom (92), predstojnikom redarstva u Požegi 1941. i 1942., koji je osumnjicen da je pocinio ratni zlocin nad civilnim stanovništvom tijekom tih godina.

Zahtjev za istragom Županijskog državnog odvjetništva je osnovan jer postoji opravdana sumnja da je Ašner pocinio kažnjiva djela za koja se tereti, a na rješenje o provedbi istrage rok za žalbu je tri dana, o kojoj nakon toga odlucuje Izvanraspravno vijece Županijskog suda, izjavio je u srijedu istražni sudac toga suda Berislav Devcic.

Istražni zahtjev i prijedlog za pritvor osumnjicenika, kako se doznaje, prije nešto više od mjesec dana zaprimljen je od Županijskog državnog odvjetništva, koje je istražnom sucu dostavilo stotinjak stranica arhivske grade o djelovanju tadašnje policije kojoj je predstojnik bio Ašner.

Kaznenu prijavu protiv Ašnera, cije je prebivalište nepoznato, još je sredinom prošle godine podnio Efraim Zuroff, izvršni direktor Centra Simona Wiesenthala, na temelju istraživanja mladog Požežanina Alana Budaja o stradanju Židova na požeškom podrucju 1941. i 1942. ________________________________________________________________________

ZAGREB, May 4 (AFP) - A Croatian court on Wednesday ordered a probe of war crimes allegations against a Croatian suspected of having committed atrocities during World War II.

Milivoj Asner, 92, is suspected of committing war crimes against civilians in 1941 and 1942 in the eastern town of Pozega, investigative judge at the Pozega county court Berislav Devcic told national radio. Asner was the police chief in Pozega during the war, when Croatia was ruled by the Nazi-allied Ustasha regime. His alleged crimes have been reported by the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center. Devcic said the probe could open within some 20 days, depending on the outcome of any appeals filed by Asner. The Ustasha persecuted Serbs, Jews, Gypsies and Croatians who opposed their ideology. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in Ustasha death camps during the war, according to independent estimates.

After the war Asner moved to Austria but he returned to Croatia in 1991, when the country proclaimed its independence from the then Yugoslavia. He was living in the eastern town of Daruvar but he left in July last year after the Wiesenthal Center raised his case with the Croatian authorities, accusing him of crimes against Jews and Serbs.

Media reports late last year said he was hiding in neighbouring Austria. ________________________________________________________________________

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