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A Croatian far-right MP, who was found guilty this month in Zagreb of war crimes committed during the civil war nearly two decades ago, has been arrested in Bosnia after fleeing the country.
Branimir Glavas was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by a Zagreb court for his role in orchestrating the murder of Serbs in the country’s bloody civil war nearly two decades ago. Glavas’s conviction rested on the accusation that he ordered a paramilitary unit to abduct, torture and murder six Serb civilians in the city of Osijek in 1991. The victims were then executed with the mouths taped and hands and feet tied and their bodies then tossed into a river. Glavas was also found guilty of the murders of two other Serb civilians, one of whom it was claimed he made drink battery acid before dispatching him.
In 2006 Glavas founded the right-wing HSSSB party after he was expelled from the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). Now in custody in Bosnia, Glavas maintains that his trial in the capital was politically motivated as the investigation into him only began after he was booted out of the HDZ. Glavas insisted that he wasn’t guilty of war crimes but that wouldn’t be able to get a fair trial. He had been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment before his escape from Croatia.
Seven months ago Glavas secured Bosnian citizenship and is now being held in a country that doesn’t normally extradite crinimals. | Source: Zagreb Life | May.30.2009 |
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