It appears that Justin Clarke (one of his many aliases) lived in Croatia, fought in the Homeland war, had a wife and a child – all the while being wanted by the UK for at least one murder!
Most of the time, we really enjoy it when Croatia appears in the foreign press, as it usually involves compliments for our wonderful coastline and tourist successes. Sometimes a story will appear, though, that no Croat should be proud of, and that’s exactly what happened last week.
British media has reported that their national, Justin Clarke, shot and killed a drug-dealer during a drug dealing scam in 1993, and was convicted for that murder last week after being caught in Germany in 2016 and extradited to the UK to be tried.
How does Croatia play a part in that true-crime story? Well, apparently, Justin Clarke has spent a considerable amount of those 23 years of hiding – in Croatia. Supposedly, he joined Croatian Army soon after fleeing the UK, fought in Croatia and in Bosnia for Croatian forces, got a veteran’s pension from the government, was awarded Croatian citizenship in 2006 (or 2007), lived here peacefully, had a wife and a child – while all that time being one of the most wanted people in the UK!
There are many inconsistencies surrounding his life’s story. First of all, some records point to him fighting in the Croatian Army's Operation Maslenica (liberation of territory near Zadar), however that operation took place in January 1993, so before the murder in the UK. He could’ve been to Croatia before that, of course, and then returned to the UK for a while, only to come back after he needed to disappear. The other unclear detail is that many British media outlets reported him as having been a party of the Bosnian Army in Bosnia, while he was actually part of Croatian forces (or was he? Is it possible he changed sides as well?).
The British media had some information that he maintained close personal contacts with people living in Dalmatia, and that that’s where he lived for most of the time he spent in Croatia. A brief Google search finds an article from the Croatian Jutarnji list from 2010 that places him in Dalmatia as well, and adds another level of secrecy to his life. This article explains that Clarke was a Croatian citizen (which can still be determined if you input his data into the registry of Croatian citizens, like I did), but that he was wanted by Scotland Yard back in the eighties, as he was known for being involved in numerous assassinations as a former IRA member. At some point Clarke fled Croatia and was employed by a Croatian company (Konstruktor) on security in their Qatar branch. In late 2008, people from Konstruktor were warned that he was wanted in the UK, he was under close watch by the Qatari intelligence but he managed to escape them as well. That article also states that Justin Clarke is just one of numerous identities he used during the years, which helped him avoid arrest.
Today, Večernji list managed to find where exactly he lived in Croatia, and they claim it was Baška Voda, a small place in Dalmatia. One of the people they talked to anonymously told them that Clarke moved there in 1995, shortly after the war was finally over and that he’s lived there for most of those 20 years as their neighbour. He had a few businesses there, one of his girlfriends gave birth to his child in 2005 or 2006, the locals called him Irac (The Irish Guy) and he wasn’t really popular with them. He had a bit of a temper, a short fuse and had been involved in many fights over the years that led to him being arrested on multiple occasions. Supposedly, he finally fled Croatia just before the country entered the EU, as he was afraid that it would alert the Croatian police – but that’s really not how Interpol works, and Clarke was on their list, and Croatia has been a member of Interpol since 1992. And it most certainly does not explain why he was finally caught in Berlin, if his goal was to get away from the EU.
Clarke is in a British prison, supposedly not giving any information to the investigators (he even refused to participate in his own court proceedings), so we’ll probably never know the full truth of his life in hiding, but Croatian police should ask themselves how all of this is possible and why a dangerous murderer was allowed to live freely in Croatia for over 20 years.
