September 6 (SeeNews) - The High Court in London postponed a hearing on the request for extradition of the owner of Croatia's ailing concern Agrokor, Ivica Todoric, from the UK after his lawyer told the court the defence has new evidence, Croatian media reported on Thursday.
Todoric's defence team has been given extra time to fight the extradition, with a new hearing scheduled to take place in the week beginning on October 15, public broadcaster HRT reported.
In late July, the High Court squashed Todoric's appeal against a first-instance ruling by the Westminster Magistrates Court of April 23, under which Todoric was to be extradited to Croatia where he is wanted for alleged fraud.
After his appeal was rejected, Todoric was granted another chance to be heard, with the hearing scheduled for September 6.
Todoric, his two sons, and 12 other business associates are under criminal investigation in Croatia for suspected wrongdoing at Agrokor that led the country's largest privately-held concern to the brink of collapse in 2017. A Zagreb county court ordered that Todoric be put in pre-trial detention in October.
The owner of Agrokor was detained in London in November on a European arrest warrant and was released on bail just hours after his detention. He was stripped of his passport and was required to wear an electronic tag and report to a police station three times a week.
Todoric's lawyers argued in April before the London court that the prosecution was politically motivated and that there was a close connection between the company and senior Croatian politicians.
The Agrokor group employs some 60,000 people throughout the states of the former Yugoslavia.
In April last year, the Croatian government stepped in to prevent the collapse of indebted Agrokor by appointing a crisis manager under a special law governing the management of companies of systemic importance for the country's economy. Todoric was stripped of his managerial rights under the law popularly known as Lex Agrokor but remains owner of the concern.