Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree granting Russian citizenship to Ratko Samats, who is accused of committing war crimes in the Bosnian town of Klyuch in the 1990s.
His extradition was requested by authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Former Republika Srpska (RS) army officer Samac is the 29th person on the list of 44 foreign nationals to whom Putin granted Russian citizenship in a decree published on January 9, 2024, Radio Free Europe reported.
In 2016, Russia rejected the BiH Ministry of Justice's request to extradite Ratko Samac, who was accused of the triple murder of civilians in Banja Luka in 1993 and war crimes against the civilian population in Ključ. Samats has lived in Russia since 1999, according to Russian media reports that Radio Free Europe (RFE) could not independently confirm. The Serbian war criminal went to Kurgan in the southern Urals for treatment in 1999, where he was arrested in 2016, Sputnik reported at the time, based on BiH's request for a war crimes warrant. The then-state human rights ombudsman, Ella Pamfilova, asked the prosecutors to investigate the extradition request. After that, nothing is written about Samats.
In 2016, Sputnik also reported that after leaving for Russia, Samats first received a temporary residence permit in that country and that in September 2015 his stay was extended until 2020. This information also cannot be confirmed.
BGNES reminds Samac is accused of grave human rights violations due to crimes he committed against civilians in the Klju region of Western Bosnia during the war in the 1990s. Samac is also accused of murdering Hamdija Vucic, his wife Dervisa Vucic, and Mina Talic in 1993. During the 1992 expulsion of the non-Serb population in Kljuc, over 150 civilians were killed and some were arrested and beaten.
The list of foreigners granted citizenship by the Russian president also includes the Croatian doctor Mirela Jakupanec, who supported the Russian occupation of the Ukrainian region of Donetsk, the American professional boxer Kevin Johnson, who is a friend of the Kremlin, as well as the Canadian hockey player Brendan Leipsic, who plays for the club SKA from St. Petersburg. /BGNES
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