WORLD BRIEFING / SERBIA
The Serbian government confirmed it has paid $900,000 in compensation to the family of an American who was badly beaten, allegedly by a Serb.
Government official Slobodan Homen said the money was paid to the family of Bryan Steinhauer, 22, who was allegedly assaulted by his Serbian classmate Miladin Kovacevic during a barroom brawl in upstate New York in May and left in a coma.
Kovacevic, a 22-year-old former basketball player at Binghamton University, jumped bail and fled the U.S. a month later with emergency travel documents provided by Serbian diplomats in New York.
The compensation to the Steinhauer family will be used for his medical expenses, and is also a recognition that Serbian officials helped Kovacevic escape, Homen said.
The deal, made by the Serbian government and U.S. judicial authorities, led to an upstate New York prosecutor saying Wednesday that he would hand the Kovacevic case over to Serbian courts for further proceedings.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
