Immediately after the verdict against Branimir Glavas and five other persons charged with war crimes against civilians was upheld by the Supreme Court last Friday, the Zagreb County Court forwarded the Supreme Court ruling to all parties to the proceedings and to the parliament's Credentials and Privileges Commission, the parliamentary body in charge of immunity-related matters which stripped Glavas of immunity as member of parliament, a source at the Zagreb County Court said on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court last Friday upheld verdicts against all six indictees in the case, but it reduced their prison sentences.
Immediately after the announcement of the trial court verdict in May 2009, Glavas fled to Bosnia and Herzegovina whose citizenship he also holds and where he has been waiting for his verdict to become final.
In the meantime, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina amended their agreement on the mutual enforcement of final court rulings in criminal matters to make it impossible for persons who have received a final verdict to avoid serving their sentence by abusing dual citizenship.
The amended agreement makes it possible to send a person to serve his/her sentence without their consent, a move designed to remove problems in the enforcement of final court verdicts for criminal offences in cases when a person whose verdict has become final in one country flees to the other country.
Responding to an inquiry from Hina, officials at the Croatian Justice Ministry said that the ministry could send a request to the Bosnian Justice Ministry to take over the enforcement of Glavas's final verdict only after it received a request to that effect from the Zagreb County Court.
The officials said that it was difficult to say when the ministry would receive such a request, considering the fact that the final verdict must first be sent to Glavas. The ministry officials also recalled provisions of the law on international legal assistance in criminal matters, which state that the Justice Ministry can request a foreign country to take over the enforcement of a Croatian verdict only if Croatian authorities cannot ensure its enforcement.
If the judge who passed the trial court verdict in the case requests Bosnian authorities to take over the enforcement of Glavas's verdict, the Bosnian Justice Ministry will forward the request to the court in charge of the case, which will enforce the verdict.
The Justice Ministry said it was difficult to say how long this procedure could last.
As for the statement by Glavas's defence counsel that they would challenge the final verdict before the Constitutional Court, officials at the Justice Ministry recalled that such a suit would not prevent the enforcement of the final verdict.
After Croatia and Bosnia in February this year amended the said agreement, a convict's consent is no longer required to enforce the verdict in the other country, and convicts now can only decide in which country they want to serve their sentence.
Croatian authorities have so far sent to Bosnian authorities 38 requests for the enforcement of verdicts and Bosnia has sent Croatia nine such requests. So far, none of those procedures have been completed.
