The United States is urging Serbia to return a basketball player who fled to his home country after being charged with assault in a beating that nearly killed a man, dpa reported.
The US embassy in Belgrade has asked Serbia to send 21-year-old Miladin Kovacevic back to the United States to face first degree felony assault charges in the state of New York.
"We have urged this person's return, although we have not yet filed a formal extradition request on behalf of the United States," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Kovacevic was in the United States to play basketball at Binghamton Univeristy in New York when he and two co-defendants were accused of beating and kicking the head of fellow student Bryan Steinhauer in a May 4th bar brawl in downtown Binghamton, local media reports said.
Steinhauer, 22, remains unconscious and in the hospital, the reports said. If he dies the charges could be elevated to homicide.
Kovacevic fled the United States June 9 after his family posted 100,000 dollars in bail money. He had surrendered his passport to authorities but was able to acquire travel documents from an official at the Serbian consulate in New York - which also drew complaints from the US government.
"We are appalled at the behavior of the Serbian Consulate, which inappropriately issued an emergency travel document to Kovacevic after he was ordered to relinquish his passport and remain in the US," the US ambassador to Serbia, Cameron Munter, said on the embassy's website in Belgrade.
The consulate official has reportedly been dismissed for providing Kovacevic with an emergency passport.
Munter has been meeting with Serbian authorities and embassy officials met Sunday with Kovacevic's family and lawyer, McCormack said.
The other two defendants remain in US custody on similar charges. A judge is considering whether to require Sanel Softic and Edin Dzubur to be electronically monitored if they are released pending the outcome of their trial.
Dzubur is a Bosnian citizen, while Softic has duel US-Bosnian citizenship, according to local media reports.