Posted on 07/24/2008 11:30:44 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
American officials in Belgrade have delivered a diplomatic note to the Serbian government, demanding that the towering fugitive charged with pummeling a college classmate be returned to the U.S. within 10 days.
The note, excerpts of which were obtained by the Daily News, represents the first time the U.S. government has set a deadline for the return of Miladin Kovacevic, 21.
The U.S. has been pressing the Serbian government to hand over Kovacevic after he fled the country last month with a passport issued by a consulate member, Igor Milosevic.
"It is imperative that the [Serbian government] remedy these outrageous actions committed by its official representative, Igor Milosevic, and ensure the immediate return of Miladin Kovacevic to the United States for further legal proceedings and trial, not later than Aug. 1, 2008," the note reads.
American officials insist Kovacevic must be sent back to the U.S. because he was released into the custody of a diplomat following his release on $100,000 bail.
"Despite his presence in court when Mr. Kovacevic was ordered by the judge not to leave the United States, Mr. Milosevic issued an emergency passport to Mr. Kovacevic," the note reads.
The Serbian foreign minister has said Kovacevic, who is suspected of brutally assaulting upstate Binghamton University student Bryan Steinhauer at a college bar May 4, would not be extradited.
Also Wednesday, Sens. Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton, both New York Democrats, told the Serbian Embassy's top official "that there would be significant consequences for Serbia if this matter was not resolved."
The same idiots that railed against Iraq and now Iran...if they really get their way he'll be there 20 years from now!
Don’t extradict...
extricate!
Figures. I knew the U.S. wasn’t gonna take this Serbian slight lying down.
Too bad the thug in question wasn’t a Kosovar — he’d be getting kid-glove treatment right about now.
To be fair, if this guy was from Kosovo and had fled back there, the government of Kosovo would have fallen all over itself to extradite him back to the US.
we have no dog in this fight = get out and leave to EU to handle.
To be fair it sounds like the Serb did a bad thing. We should get and try him. But, to be fair Clinton (the bent one) ordered American soldiers to kill about 5000 Serbs. The Serbs had done nothing to the United States to deserve such criminal behavior. Lets swap Clinton for the Serb.
If a Kosovar Albanian cut off someone’s head, they’d excuse it as just a cultural misundertanding. Or burned down a church. That’s OK.
Who else thinks the capture of alleged war criminal Radovan Karadzic was just a coincidence that happened during the negotiations to get this animal sent back to the US?
Any relationship to Soloban?
I'm not sure California would extradite someone for winning a bar fight.
Mexico won't return suspects for murder, rape, and pillage. But then again, we haven't bombed Mexico recently.
This would be the appropriate course to take, but for the lack of photo opportunities & macho sound bites for Sen Clinton & Sen Shumer.
It wasn’t a fight. It was a beating.
extricate!
Yes ... or even extract.
Send him back? HA! He just signed a basketball contract over there.
Yes they do. The stipulation to return a murder suspect is that they will not be given the death penalty if convicted.
this isn't someone who committed a crime and left without ever being arrested. i hope they get this scumbag back. a seal team could go in without any resistance and grab him. but that wouldn't happen.
This is what Predators are for.
They should trade him for Wesley Clark!
So - what happens if they don’t turn the thug over? What are the costs - or is this just another futile act?
ping
All we have to do is tell Serbia no more visas until this monster is sent here for trial
Which is interfering with our legal system, which they have taken to the world court in an attempt at overthrow, AND, which they also ignore with regard to drugs and immigration.
No pass given for that little jewel.
Like the Serbian official who issued the passport - it is the government and its agencies who are first at fault. The US government is in no way innocent in each of those cases.
And, was it a fight or a beating is not the point. Is the Serb a nice guy or a thug is not the point.
The point is that diplomatic process has been violated and it is the diplomat who needs bringing up - by being expelled.
I really don't think the US expends very much effort in bringing thugs back here for punishment when they know there are murderers, big time business (and tax) frauds, and the occasional traitor running free in other countries.
Fill me in why the other guy got beaten up? Did the other guy start it? Did this Serb just decide to start beating up on the victim? It would be interesting to understand how this incident got started?
Too bad he isn’t Montes of Mexico.
Well Mr. Steinhauer must be special because I would bet good money if it were me who took an ass whoopin those two worthies Shumer and Clinton would give a rat’s ass.
“When a Bush administration gives you a deadline, my advice is to meet it. “
That’s funny.
There are a few variations on this, but it basically sounds like Kovacevic went to a bar with two Bosnian Muslims male friends. One of the Bosnian's brought his girlfriend. The Steinhauer kid was likely drunk, as he started playing grab ass with the Bosnian's girlfriend (who was a Latina). Kovacevic stepped in and according to different accounts, the Steinhauer kid head-butted either Kovacevic or the Bosnian Muslim boyfriend. Kovacevic then decked the the Steinhauer kid. From here out, it's all "he said", "he said", "she said", but what is sure is that Kovacevic and/or/both the Bosnians started kicking the Steinhauer kid while he was on the ground, including kicking him in the head.
Kovacevic AND the two Bosnians were charged by police in the beating. But the two Bosnian Muslims immeditaely started blaming the whole thing on Kovacevic. It was easy to do because the kid who got beaten was a 130 lbs American and Kovacevic was a surly 6'9" 250lb Serb. That isn't to say that Kovacevic is innocent, but this behavior is what virtually all accomplices to a crime do -- "blame it all on the other guy" -- and Kovacevic made a perfect fall guy target based on his size.
In any case, after Kovacevic and the other two were let out (on $100K bail) Kovacevic's parents completely panicked and went to the Serbian embassy. They found a sympathetic (or bribable, who knows?) embassy worker to give Kovacevic a temporary passport as he had to give up his regular passport as a condition of bail. Kovacevic used the temporary passport and flew to Serbia, where he knew that the laws protect Serbian citizens from extradition.
At this point the NY Daily News took up the cause and started running daily columns on that "Serb brute", "Serb thug", "evil Serb", etc, never mentioning that the other two kids were Bosnian Muslims, and leaving the reader to believe they were Serbs, too. "Sweet little Jewish scholar gets beaten up by big bad Serb Nazi(s)" was the angle -- and the two Bosnian Muslims were cheerleading this idea, as they became truly incidental to the story -- if Kovacevic was a big target to lay it all on before, after he ran, he was the perfect target for it all. Then the other newspapers picked the story up, then Sen Chuck Shumer made it his "cause celebre", dragging Condoleeza Rice into it. Then it became an international incident, even though Serbia fired the embassy workers immediately and there are hundreds of other accused & convicted criminals out there who have fled the US for other countries, some of whom are convicted murderers. This case got special attention.
Having said all of that, although I understand why Kovacevic ran, I still believe that Serbia should hand Kovacevic over. He entered Serbia by illegal means, the Serbian embassy guaranteed his appearance in the NY court, etc. I aslo think that the Serbian embassy workers should be prosecuted here in the US for their actions.
Do I think that Kovacevic would get a fair trial if he returns? He's already been tried and convicted by the press -- what do you think? But that's not the point. He fled prosecution and now the whole country of Serbia is going to suffer because he acted like a drunk idiot one night with his stupid friends -- that's even less fair -- and, regardless, he's still far more culpable than the people who weren't even there.
Just when you start feeling some empathy towards Serbia, they pull some low rent stunt like this.
"Serbia" didn't pull this stunt. The kid, his parents and an embassy worker did. Now they are trying to use Serbia's laws to hide behind. The question is whether Serbia will let them.
Bail is usually 10%, and according to the papers they put down $100,000K, so his actually bail would have been $1,000,000 if they went through a bail bondsman -- or $100,000K if they just put it up themselves.
It was a Serbian at their embassy who got him out with a special visa, the obligation is on them to send him back. Doesn’t sound like it should be a big deal to me, since he was fraudelently sneaked out of the country.
I suspect that Mr. Steinhauer's last name is a large reason Schumer is so involved.
Agreed. But lawyers think that they rule the world in every country, don't they?
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