MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – The lawyer for a Semmes man arrested this month said Friday his client intends to fight extradition to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he is wanted on war crimes charges.
Hamdija Alukic, 70, is accused of committing two murders during the country’s civil war in the early 1990s. Authorities there allege that he ambushed a car, shot at the driver and set the vehicle on fire.
Relatives and other supporters were in a federal courtroom in Mobile for Friday’s brief hearing. That includes Mobile County school board member Johnny Hatcher, who said he has known the family for years. He said he is close friends with Alukic’s son and has spent Christmas holidays with him.
“His father is a good man,” he said outside the courthouse.
The U.S. Marshals Service currently is holding Alukic in Mobile County Metro Jail without bond. In a court filing, defense attorney Arthur Madden acknowledged that bail generally is not granted in foreign extradition cases. But he argued that it is within the judge’s discretion and wrote that he wants an opportunity to demonstrate that Alukic is not a danger or a risk to flee and that “his advanced age, medical condition, character and background, ties to the community, and the unusual delay in institution of the Bosnian investigation and the extradition process constitute special circumstances warranting release on conditions pending the extradition hearing.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Bradley Murray set a hearing for March 31 to take up that matter. Madden indicated that the extra time will be helpful since the court documents run 260 pages and that he has not had a chance to review them in depth.
“It’s gonna take a long time,” he said.
In the court filing, Madden indicated that Alukic intends to fight extradition based on an exception in the extradition treaty that exempts “political offenses.” He cited language in the document that a fugitive will not be surrendered if the offense he is wanted for is “of a political character” or if the charge has been made “with a view to try to punish him for an offense of a political character.”
Hatcher said Alukic came to the United States legally decades ago and has a green card. He said Alukic has talked about his experiences in the Bosnian war.
“We all got together one day, and he got really emotional, would talk about the fact that his mother and father were murdered, and he’d run off into the woods and hid,” he said. “They murdered them and turned around and burned the body. … But as far as doing war crimes, I wouldn’t think that man would ever do anything like that. He’s such a good man.”
Hatcher said he considers Alukic a political prisoner.
“If they get that man back, they’re gonna kill him – plain and simple,” he said. “He can’t let them get him back. If he goes back, we’re giving him a death sentence.”
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