Тhe co-owner of the Kozyrna Karta restaurant chain, Andriy Zadorozhny, has asked for political asylum in Croatia, the Kommersant-Ukraine newspaper wrote on Wednesday.

Zadorozhny filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court of Croatia on January 25 asking it to revoke a ruling of the District court in Vukovar, Croatia, dated September 16, 2012, on his extradition to Ukraine, according to the statement by the Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. The committee, in turn, appealed to Croatian Justice Minister Orsat Miljenic to help resolve this issue, the newspaper wrote.

The defense lawyers challenged this ruling in the Supreme Court of Croatia, but it dismissed the appeal.

"According to the Croatian laws, if the Constitutional Court dismisses the claims of the defense lawyers not to extradite Andriy Zadorozhny, only Justice Minister Orsat Miljenic can help," the newspaper wrote.

As reported, Ukraine passed documents to Croatia that are needed for the extradition of Zadorozhny. The Interior Ministry said that Zadorozhny was put on the wanted list on July 6, 2012 at the initiative of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and that he was arrested in Croatia on July 29.

"He is suspected of fraud (Part 4, Article 190 of the Criminal Code). The Ukrainian side has passed the documents, but the final decision on the extradition has not yet been taken," the ministry said.