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In late September the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed a verdict pronounced by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia, under which Glavas was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment for war crimes committed in Osijek.
Branimir Glavas’ Defence filed an appeal over what it claims are substantive violations of the criminal proceedings provisions, wrongly and incompletely determined facts and the pronounced sentence, while the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina considers the appeal groundless.
Indictee Glavas addressed the Chamber at the hearing, saying “a political process” was carried out against him in the Republic of Croatia, adding he did not commit the crimes for which he is charged.
“While I am standing here in front of you, my conscience is clear. I am an innocent man who was pronounced guilty. I am the victim of a political process. (…) I am not guilty of the crimes for which I was sentenced under the political verdict passed down by Croatia’s politicized court.
“The Republic of Croatia is my homeland, just like Bosnia and Herzegovina. I have decided to serve my sentence as an innocent man in Bosnia and Herzegovina, instead of serving it in prison in the Republic of Croatia,” Glavas said.
The Appellate Chamber will render its decision at a later stage.
Glavas, former Secretary of the Municipal National Defence Secretariat in Osijek, was sentenced for crimes committed in that town, Following the pronouncement of the verdict in Croatia, he fled to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he holds citizenship, and was later arrested by Bosnian police.
The Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Croatia filed a request with Bosnian judicial institutions, asking them to take over the execution of the sentence against Glavas. The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina then confirmed the previously pronounced sentence and decided that Glavas would serve it in the country.
Glavas was sentenced with having ordered and failed to prevent murders, torture, inhumane treatment and detention of civilians from the Osijek area from July to the end of December 1991, serving as “an acting and then formal Commander of Osije Town Defence”.
In its appeal Glavas’ Defence said that the verdict pronounced by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina was “unclear and contradictory”, also claiming the crimes with which he is charged cannot be characterised as war crimes against civilians.
Nikica Grzic, Defence attorney for Glavas, explained the verdict also did not contain “an enforcement clause”, so the request filed by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Croatia was “premature”.
The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina disagreed with the Defence claims, stressing they were not legally justified.
Glavas said he hoped “justice will prevail”. The Defence then presented a few newspaper articles about the alleged “political chase” against the indictee and their allegations that he represented “a problem of international relations”.
