Bosnia releases former Dinamo Zagreb coach Zoran Mamic

Zoran Mamic, former coach of Dinamo Zagreb, was released this Wednesday, hours after being arrested in Bosnia, where he is on the run from the Croatian justice that convicted him of embezzlement in operations such as the transfer of Luka Modric to Tottenham English in 2008.

According to the Bosnian portal Avaz, Mamic was released by the Bosnian justice under the obligation to report to the police once a week. The court has not ruled on a possible extradition to Croatia since, according to that source, that country has not yet formally requested it.

Croatian authorities last Wednesday they issued an international arrest warrant against Mamic, after Monday did not appear at the penitentiary where he must serve his sentence.

The Croatian Supreme Court confirmed Mamic's conviction last March; against his brother, former Dinamo manager Zdravko Mamic; and against two other people for having misappropriated club funds by illegally withdrawing 15.3 million euros from their coffers.

The embezzlement was allegedly also committed through player transfers, such as Luka Modric to Tottenham English in 2008 or that of Mateo Kovacic to Inter Milan in 2013. The Mamic brothers have dual Croatian and Bosnian citizenship.

Zdravko Mamic already fled to Bosnia in 2018 after the first instance sentence that sentenced him to six years. In 2019, a court in Bosnia-Herzegovina refused to extradite him to Croatia.