JURIST - Paper Chase: Croatia court orders lawmaker arrested for war crimes

[JURIST] A court in Croatia [JURIST news archive] has ordered state officials to arrest parliamentarian Branimir Glavas [official profile, in Croatian; Wikipedia profile] on suspicion of war crimes commited against Serbs, including abduction, torture and murder in the eastern city of Osijek [backgrounder] in 1991-92 during Croatia's war of independence from the former Yugoslavia. Glavas, responsible at the time for the city's defense, is the highest ranking Croat official to be investigated for war crimes so far. The court's order to arrest Glavas came on the state prosecutor's third attempt to persuade the court to arrest him.

Glavas was one of the founding members of the ruling conservative HDZ party [official website; Wikipedia backgrounder], but was ousted last year by Prime Minister Ivo Sanader [SE Times profile]. The Croatian Parliament [official website, English version] granted a request in May to lift parliamentary immunity for Glavas in order to move forward with criminal proceedings. The court has not yet decided if Glavas has immunity from detention. Reuters has more.

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