President Zoran Milanovic has stripped Branimir Glavas, a retired military general and politician, of his state decorations, according to a decision published on Wednesday in Croatia’s Official Gazette.
The decorations were revoked following a ruling by the High Criminal Court of Croatia, which made Glavas’s war crimes conviction final on June 10.
The court upheld a seven-year prison sentence for Glavas in the “Garage” and “Duct Tape” cases, finding that he had failed to prevent, and had directly ordered, the killing of civilians, their inhumane treatment, and their unlawful imprisonment in the eastern city of Osijek during the 1991 War of Independence.
According to the court, Glavas, then commander of the city’s defense, ordered members of the Croatian Army to arrest individual Serbs in Osijek. They were interrogated about their alleged involvement in the war and taken to the banks of the Drava River, where they were executed and their bodies thrown into the river. All the recovered bodies were found with their hands tied, and their mouths sealed with tape.
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