The trial of dr. Djura Djurović in 1974 and the state of Yugoslav communist judiciary

Abstract

The paper sketches the life of Dr. Djura Djurović, a pre WW2 lawyer and a member of the Yugoslav Home Army during WW2. He was convicted to 20 years in prison in 1945 as a member of the Central National Committee (CNK) of the Yugoslav Home Army. The paper compares trial to the leadership of CNK in 1945 and the second trial of Djurović in 1974. On the basis of Djurović's file from the SDB (Yugoslav communist secret service) the author analyses the ways how indictment against Djurović was staged in 1973, and a show-trial that followed. By comparing his verdict and report from an independent observer from the Amnesty International who witnessed the trial the author analyses the trial and warns on traps in analyses of cases from that time. The author concludes that in the period of 30 years (1945-1974) Yugoslav judiciary advanced very little in the field of political criminal cases regarding the rule of law. In 1974 equally as in 1945 there was a bond between secret service, the office of the public prosecutor and court panels dealing with criminal law.

U članku se daje pregled života dr Đure Đurovića, predratnog pravnika i pripadnika JVuO koji je 1945. osuđen na 20 godina zatvora. Poredi se prvo suđenje Đuroviću i članovima CNK-a iz 1945. i drugo suđenje iz 1974. Na osnovu njegovog dosijea u UDBI/SDB-u analizira se kako je konstruisana optužnica protiv dr Đurovića 1973. i kako je lažirano suđenje. Poređenjem presude i izveštaja nezavisnog posmatrača Amnesti internešenela daje se prikaz suđenja i ukazuje na zamke u analizi slučajeva iz tog vremena. Autor zaključuje da za je za trideset godina (1945-1974) jugoslovensko krivično pravosuđe veoma malo napredovalo u pogledu vladavine prava i da je u oba slučaja postojala spona tajne službe, tužilaštva i sudskog veća.