War crimes convict Glavaš eligible for parole but won't seek it, lawyer says

The legal saga of Branimir Glavaš, convicted of war crimes against Serb civilians in Osijek in 1991, continues to highlight perceived dysfunction within the Croatian justice system. Glavaš has already spent over five years in prison, but his current legal status remains uncertain.

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He has conditions for parole, but first the prison sentence execution judge must summon him to serve the sentence.

In October 2023, Glavaš was handed a seven-year sentence for war crimes. Unusually, he was allowed to leave the courtroom a free man. This followed the Constitutional Court's 2015 decision to overturn a previous conviction, leading to his release from a sentence he was serving in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Because he had already served more than five years, the Constitutional Court found no grounds for pretrial detention.

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He has conditions for parole, but whether he will seek it, I don't know for now.

Now, having served three-quarters of his seven-year sentence, Glavaš is technically eligible for parole. However, he has stated he will not seek it. His lawyer, Filip Glavaš, explained that a judge must first summon him to serve his sentence, a step that has not yet occurred. The lawyer also expressed strong reservations about the High Penal Court's recent confirmation of the conviction, arguing it failed to address issues raised by the Constitutional Court and instead created new problems.

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The decision of the High Penal Court is deeply problematic for me because it did not rectify all that the Constitutional Court pointed out, but, in my opinion, it only opened new cracks.

Filip Glavaš intends to appeal to the Supreme Court for an extraordinary review of the final verdict. He also highlighted significant delays by the High Penal Court in resolving appeals, noting that a deadline set by the Supreme Court was exceeded. The defense has filed new requests for a trial within a reasonable time, and a new constitutional complaint is also planned, suggesting the Glavaš case is far from its legal conclusion.

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I simply find that unacceptable, because the High Penal Court has not resolved the case for more than a year. And they knew they had a deadline within which they had to resolve it.