By Associated Press
Stanton, KY – A woman wanted in Bosnia on torture charges stemming from the war following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia faces extradition after being arrested in Kentucky.
U.S. Marshal Loren "Squirrel" Carl said officers arrested 52-year-old Azra Basic (BOSCH), who lives in Stanton, about 45 miles east of Lexington, on Wednesday.
The Croatian-born Basic is wanted in Bosnia on charges of committing war crimes against ethnic Serb civilians in 1992. Assistant U.S. Attorney James Arehart wrote in a complaint requesting extradition that Basic is wanted in Europe on charges of murder and torture.
Arehart says Basic, a one-time member of the Croatian Army, is accused of killing at least one person and torturing others at three camps from April to June 1992. Witnesses said Basic forced one man to drink gasoline, another to drink human blood and carved crosses into the flesh of a third man.
Basic's attorney, Patrick Nash of Lexington, was not immediately available for comment Thursday morning.
It is unclear why Basic was in Kentucky. Court records list her as having lived at two addresses in Stanton.
Bosnian authorities charged Basic in January 1993 as an unknown, using witness statements, medical examinations and forensic experts between 1992 and 2001 to identify her. Interpol traced Basic to Kentucky in 2004 and an international arrest warrant went out in 2006.
Arehart's complaint says Basic's alleged crimes took place at three camps near the majority-Serbian settlement of Cardak in Derventa. Witness said the Croatian military took ethnic Serbs from the Cardak settlement around April 26, 1992 and subsequently tortured them.
Radojic Garic, listed in the complaint as a witness, said Blagoje Djuras was beaten unconscious. Garic said Basic then stabbed him in the neck, killing him, and dragged other Serbs to the body "and made us drink that blood."
A second witness, Dragan Kovacevic, told investigators in October 1994 that Basic slit the throat of Djuras. Arehart said Kovacevic identified a picture of Basic in December 2009.
Another man, Sreten Jovanovic, told investigators in September 1992 that he was forced to drink gasoline, beaten unconscious and his hands and face were set on fire by Basic, who was wearing a military police uniform from a brigade in Rijeka, a port city in Croatia.
Arehart wrote that a subsequent medical examination concluded that Jovanovic suffered "torture in captivity."
Other witnesses listed in the complaint said Basic and other soldiers beat and burned them and pulled their nails out with pliers.
In August 1992, witness Cedo Maric told Bosnian investigators that Basic cut a cross and four "S" letters into his forehead before hacking his neck below the Adam's apple.
In November 1994 testimony, Mile Kuzmanovic told investigators Basic forced him to "swallow a handful of salt and eat Yugoslav money" before beating him with boots, weapon butts, metal bars and batons. Kuzmanovic said Basic and others forced him to "lick blood off floors covered in broken glass and crawl on the glass with a knotted rope in his mouth with which soldiers used to pull out the teeth of prisoners."
Federal prosecutors say each offense violates the United National Convention Against Torture, which prohibits inhumane and degrading treatment of people.