Branimir Glavaš
Branimir Glavaš (born September 23, 1956 in Osijek ) is a Croatian lawyer , politician and convicted war criminal . He was a founding member of the right-wing conservative party Hrvatska demokratska zajednica (HDZ) and later co-founder of the regionalist party Hrvatski Demokratski Sabor Slavonije i Baranje (HDSSB).
Life
Glavaš grew up in a family in which several members were engaged in the Croatian Spring . His brother was murdered in 1972 in an unsuccessful attempt to organize an overthrow in Titoist Yugoslavia. He attended high school in his hometown and later graduated from the Josip Juraj Strossmayer University in Osijek . He then began his political career and was one of the founding members of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in 1990 and was elected to the Croatian Parliament in the same year.
In 1991 the military conflict broke out between Croats and Serbs in the Eastern Slavonia region. Branimir Glavaš was Defense Secretary for the Osijek District and Head of Defense for the City of Osijek at that time.
After the war he went back to politics and showed himself there as a representative of the interests of Slavonia in Zagreb, making him the most important politician in Slavonia. Glavaš was able to maintain the success of his party HDZ in Eastern Slavonia in the years after the death of Franjo Tuđman.
In April 2005 Glavaš was excluded from the HDZ, which was related to his idea of regionalization of Croatia, which would have been advantageous for the predominantly rural region of Slavonia. However, he succeeded in transferring large parts of the HDZ membership in Eastern Slavonia to the HDSSB list, which he had recently established. In the regional elections in 2005, this eurosceptic list, against the national trend, immediately won 27% of the votes in the Osijek-Baranja County . In the following year the HDSSB was formed as a party.
process
After initial investigations in 2005, the Croatian Chief Public Prosecutor opened criminal proceedings against Branimir Glavaš on April 5, 2006, and parliamentary immunity was lifted just a month later. Branimir Glavaš appealed against this decision, but it was rejected.
The official criminal investigation began in July 2006. The evidence against him comes from three sources:
- - from the Croatian police,
- - the Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia (which had opened its own case against Glavaš, but then decided to refer the case to the Croatian law enforcement authorities in order to be able to reduce pending issues and complete its activities by the end of 2008)
- - and by the Serbian Public Prosecutor.
In October 2006, Branimir Glavaš was arrested at the request of the chief prosecutor. Up until the start of the trial in October 2007, Glavaš went on hunger strikes several times, which led to a temporary incapacity to stand trial. Because of this, he was released in December 2006.
In May 2007, the Zagreb Court of Justice issued a revised war crimes indictment against Glavaš, including ordering the torture and killing of at least two Serbian civilians in the Garage case and six Serb civilians in the Selotejp case. The trial itself began in October 2007. Glavaš was found guilty of war crimes by a Croatian court on May 8, 2009 and sentenced in the first instance to 10 years in prison. In July 2010, the Supreme Court reduced his prison term from 10 to 8 years in his absence.
Glavaš himself denies any involvement in war crimes and all charges and sees himself as a victim of a political process, since the start of the criminal investigation coincided with his departure from the HDZ, the ruling party of Croatia in 2006. He describes the testimony as untrustworthy, since all witnesses "would lie and have a questionable moral or past".
Escape
On the occasion of the parliamentary elections on November 25, 2007, Branimir Glavaš was re-elected to the Croatian parliament and therefore enjoyed political immunity at the time of the guilty verdict . This could only be overturned on May 11, 2009 following the judgment by the Parliament's Mandates Committee.
Branimir Glavaš, who also has a Bosnian-Herzegovinian passport, used this period of time to flee to Herzegovina , knowing that Bosnia and Herzegovina generally does not extradite its citizens. The Croatian Ministry of Justice had submitted an extradition request to Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was rejected by Bosnia-Herzegovina on June 23, 2009. He is now in his parents' birthplace, Drinovci, near Grude .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b http://de.news.yahoo.com/1/20090508/tpl-kroatischer-politiker-wegen-kriegsve-cfb2994.html ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically defective marked. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Curriculum vitae on branimirglavas.com (Croatian), last accessed: May 22, 2009.
- ↑ Trial Watch: Branimir Glavas - Facts ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Rathfelder, Erich: “Pro-Europeans win: Croatia's opposition wins in local elections”, Die Presse , May 17, 2005.
- ^ Norbert Mappes-Niediek : "Defeat for Croatia's Prime Minister: Social Democrats and Allies Winners of the Regional Elections", Frankfurter Rundschau , May 17, 2005, p. 6.
- ↑ Der Standard , August 16, 2010
- ↑ Interview with Glavaš on the process
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Glavaš, Branimir |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Croatian lawyer, politician and convicted war criminal |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 23, 1956 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Osijek , Croatia , Yugoslavia |