Some of the 5,000 mourners who attended Jean-Michel Nicolier’s funeral in November 2025. Photo: V. Tesija/BIRN.
The family of French citizen Jean-Michel Nicolier, who was killed while defending the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar in 1991, has urged Serbia, via its embassy in Paris, to extradite a Serb they claim is the main suspect.
In a note signed by their legal representative in France, Nicolier’s mother, Lyliane Fournier, and his brother, Paul, called on the Serbian authorities to hand over the man they hold responsible for his killing. They are also seeking compensation of 200,000 euros.
In November 2025, Croatia’s Chief State Attorney, Ivan Turudic, said the investigation into the suspect in Nicolier’s killing had been suspended in Croatia and all documentation related to the case had been forwarded to France.
Turudic said there was reasonable suspicion that Nicolier was killed by Spasoje Petkovic, known as Stuka (Pike fish), who is believed to be in Serbia. “However, Serbia refused to hand him over to Croatia, so we had to stop the investigation,” Turudic said at a commemoration marking the fall of Vukovar on November 18, 2025.
He added that war crimes are not subject to statutes of limitations and can be prosecuted by any country, including France, whose citizen Nicolier was.
However, when he testified as a witness at Belgrade Special War Crimes Court in 2004, Petkovic denied killing Nicolier.
During the 1991-95 Croatian War of Independence, Vukovar was the scene of some of the heaviest fighting between Croatian forces and the Yugoslav People’s Army and Serbian paramilitary units. Following the fall of the town, numerous war crimes were committed against prisoners of war and wounded civilians, including killings at the nearby Ovcara farm.
Nicolier’s remains were exhumed and identified in late October 2025. Thousands of people attended his funeral the following month.
Witnesses Miroslav Djankovic and Nada Kalaba testified about Nicolier’s killing during proceedings before the Belgrade Special War Crimes Court in 2004.
They alleged that Petkovic shot Nicolier in the back of the head after he had been severely beaten, and took 20 French francs from his pocket. Both witnesses were convicted for crimes committed at Ovcara, near Vukovar.
“He took five people out. When he was coming back, he was panting like a dog and telling me how he had killed them. I did not hear the shots, but he himself bragged to me: ‘One of the killed was a Frenchman’,” Djankovic told the court.