ZAGREB, 29 May 2021 - Croatian President Zoran Milanović has invalidated former President Ivo Josipović's decision on stripping wartime Osijek official, general Branimir Glavaš, of war medals, since Glavaš's convictions were quashed and the retrials were ordered.

Glavaš's son, lawyer Filip Glavaš, told Hina on Saturday, that the return of the seven war medals to his father were the only logical and fair decision as his father had no longer the status of a convict.

Milanović's decision on declaring null and void Josipović's decision was published in the Official Gazette after it had been adopted on 21 May on the advice of the state commission for decorations and awards and in line with the Constitution and the relevant legislation.

The commission took into consideration the changes in the trials in the cases dubbed 'Garage' and 'Duct tape' for the war crimes against local Serbs in the eastern Croatian city of Osijek in the early 1990s.

Lawyer Filip Glavaš said today that the reasons such as the final convictions for stripping his father of war decorations had not existed for some time and that in 2019, they had asked the then president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović to return the decoration to his father.

However, she ignored our request, the lawyer Filip Glavaš told Hina.

 A month ago we sent the request to this effect to  President Zoran Milanović, and he granted our request, which is the only fair and logical decision considering the fact that the Constitutional and Supreme Courts quashed the convictions, he said.

The Supreme Court quashed the trial court verdict on 28 July 2016 and requested the Zagreb County Court to hold a new trial in this case.

In the initial trial which lasted from October 2007 to April 2009, Glavaš and the other accused were sentenced to lengthy prison terms but the final verdict was quashed by the Supreme Court. By that time Glavas had served most of his eight-year term in prisons in Bosnia and Herzegovina where he fled before the announcement of the trial court verdict.

In late November 2019, Glavaš, who was still standing trial for war crimes, supported in Osijek with his signature Milanović's presidential candidacy, saying that his signature "is not a signature for the SDP or for drawing closer to the SDP but for Milanović as a candidate for the president of the republic", while members of his HDSSB party would decide for themselves whose presidential bid to support.

Later that day, Milanović, who was  the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate for the Croatian president,  said that he distanced himself from the support expressed for his presidential bid by member of parliament and HDSSB party leader Branimir Glavaš.

"I would like to distance myself from his support because Glavaš is not my kind of people. I think that (his support) is a message to (PM Andrej) Plenković. The man has been indicted for grave war crimes and the court is expected to make a ruling. The biggest problem about it is that the trial is taking too long, considering that the events in question happened in Osijek in 1991. That is something that I, as the future president, will change if I can, by statements and by exerting pressure at least. The case is still under way and that's not how the judiciary should work," Milanović said then during his presidential campaign.

ZAGREB, November 24, 2019 - Continuing to collect signatures of support for his presidential candidacy, Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate Zoran Milanović said in Sisak on Saturday that he distanced himself from the support expressed for his presidential bid by member of parliament and HDSSB party leader Branimir Glavaš.

Milanović visited Sisak to collect signatures of support for his candidacy and when asked by reporters to comment on Glavaš's support for his presidential bid, he said that he was surprised by it.

"I would like to distance myself from his support because Glavaš is not my kind of people. I think that (his support) is a message to (Prime Minister Andrej) Plenković. The man has been indicted for grave war crimes and the court is expected to make a ruling. The biggest problem about it is that the trial is taking too long, considering that the events in question happened in Osijek in 1991. That is something that I, as the future president, will change if I can, by statements and by exerting pressure at least. The case is still under way and that's not how the judiciary should work."

Glavaš, who is standing trial for war crimes against Serb civilians in Osijek in 1991, earlier in the day supported in Osijek with his signature Milanović's candidacy, saying that his signature "is not a signature for the SDP or for drawing closer to the SDP but for Milanović as a candidate for the president of the republic", while HDSSB members would decide for themselves whose presidential bid to support.

More news about presidential elections can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, June 3, 2019 - Politician Branimir Glavaš, who is standing a retrial for war crimes committed against Serbs in Osijek, filed a criminal complaint against the key witness, Krunoslav Fehir, for the 1991 murder of Čedomir Vučković in a garage in Osijek, just before Fehir is about to testify in the ongoing trial of Glavaš and five more co-defendants, according to information provided by Zagreb County Court on Monday.

Vučković was murdered in August 1991 in a garage in Osijek by Fehir, who was at the time a 16-year-old member of the so-called Branimir Battalion and who was later given the status of protected witness whose testimonies incriminated Glavaš at previous trials.

Fehir's statement was crucial for the delivery of a guilty verdict against Glavaš and other co-defendants. However, the sentencing verdicts against Glavaš and Ivica Krnjak, Gordana Getoš Magdić, Dino Kontić, Tihomir Valentić and Zdravko Dragić were quashed by the Constitutional Court.

The retrial began in 2017 with Glavaš and his co-defendants pleading not guilty to charges of war crimes against Serbs in Osijek.

In the first trial, which lasted from October 2007 to April 2009, 120 witnesses were questioned.

The retrial is being repeated a decade since Glavaš and the other defendants were found guilty and sentenced to prison terms ranging from five to ten years. The Supreme Court shortened their sentences in a 2010 verdict.

The first verdict by the Supreme Court against Glavaš, in the duration of eight years, which he served in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, was quashed by the Constitutional Court in early 2015.

More war crimes news can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, September 17, 2018 - The leader of the regional Croatian Democratic Party of Slavonia and Baranja (HDSSB) Branimir Glavaš told a news conference in Osijek on Sunday that his party would remain a reliable partner to the ruling coalition until the end of its term.

The Zagreb County Court will start a retrial for war crimes allegedly committed against Serbs in Osijek.