Published 16.01.2025. | Nina Sauerborn
Reaction of the Centre for Peace and Documenta – Center for Dealing with the Past from Zagreb, to the awards awarded by the Community of Returnees of Osijek-Baranja County on the occasion of marking the 27th anniversary of the completion of the process of peaceful reintegration of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srijem.
We protest that among the winners of the award for exceptional contribution and active participation in the implementation of the process of peaceful reintegration of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srijem into the constitutional order of the Republic of Croatia, there is also Branimir Glavaš, who was convicted of war crimes committed in Osijek.
In the early 2000s, Branimir Glavaš was charged with war crimes committed against Serb civilians in Osijek in the 1990s. He is charged with command responsibility for the unlawful arrest, torture and murder of seven mostly Serb civilians whose bodies, hands tied with duct tape, found in the Drava River – the "Selotejp" case.
In another trial, he was charged with failing to prevent the torture and murder of a Serb civilian and torturing another – a case called "Garaža" in the media. The cases were joined, and the proceedings before the Zagreb County Court began in 2005.
In 2008, Branimir Glavaš was found guilty by a first-instance verdict and sentenced to ten years in prison. After an appeal procedure, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia reduced his sentence to eight years in prison.
We remind you that before the pronouncement of the first-instance non-final verdict, Branimir Glavaš fled to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he was protected from extradition to Croatia by dual citizenship. He served a prison sentence of just over five years in prison in Mostar.
In January 2015, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia quashed the final conviction of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia, for procedural reasons. The trial of Branimir Glavaš began at the beginning of 2017, and in 2023 he was found guilty again and sentenced to 7 years in prison. In addition to him, the sentences of the other defendants in the aforementioned criminal proceedings against Branimir Glavaš were also reduced compared to the first verdict.
In view of all of the above, especially since the victims of the crime committed in Osijek were civilians, we consider it inappropriate and without a valid legal basis to award recognition to Branimir Glavaš. We do not know his role in the peaceful reintegration of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia. He had to cooperate with the Interim Directorate of UNTAES. Therefore, we do not see how Branimir Glavaš would help the success of peaceful reintegration, preserve peace and return the Croatian Danube region to the constitutional and legal order of the Republic of Croatia.
