Aleksandra Zec was the daughter of Zagreb butcher Mihajlo Zec, and probably a completely ordinary twelve-year-old girl who would not have deserved to be written about in any way - if she had not been brutally murdered.
At around 11 p.m. on December 7, 1991, Sinisa Rimac, Munib Suljic, Igor Mikola, Nebojsa Hodak and Suzana Zivanovic (members of Mercep's unit) broke into her home at Poljanicka Street 22 in Zagreb's Tresnjevka neighborhood with the intention of arresting Mihajlo Zec for his alleged connections with the rebellious Krajina Serbs. He somehow managed to run out into the street and tried to escape, but was shot by Sinisa Rimac from a distance of about thirty meters.[1]
After that, they tied up 12-year-old Aleksandra and her mother Marija, put them in a van (without license plates) and drove to the Adolfovac mountain lodge on Sljeme, where they killed Aleksandra and her mother and threw them into a garbage pit.
A later investigation revealed that Sinisa Rimac, who had previously killed her father, had asked that Aleksandar not be killed, but that everyone else was against it because she had seen them. She acted in cold blood (with her hands and feet tied) was killed by Munib Suljić with a Heckler automatic rifle, shooting her in the back of the head. [1] Her sister Gordana and brother Dušan managed to survive because they hid in the house and thus escaped the killers.
Murder investigation
Just a few days after the crime, they were arrested by the police, and in interviews with investigators, they immediately confessed to the killings and described them in great detail. However, they made these confessions without their lawyers present – so this was taken as a major procedural error, and since there were no witnesses to the executions – they were released in 1992.[1]
After their release, Suljić and Hodak continued to fill the newspapers with crime-related scandals, while Sinisa Rimac became one of the bodyguards of the late Gojko Šušak and rose to the rank of major (or even colonel) in the Croatian Army.[1] Nothing was heard of Mikola for a long time, as he left for Herzegovina, while Suzana Živković disappeared completely.
On May 30, 1995, Siniša Rimac received the Order of Nikola Šubić Zrinski, a high award for heroic deeds in the war, from the hands of then-President Franjo Tuđman. This was seen by some in the public as an affirmation of that act and a desirable way of behaving.[2]
According to the weekly Nacional, the key political protection for the killers was provided by President Tuđman himself. Allegedly, in 1992, Stjepan Mesić came to Tuđman with a request to solve the case as soon as possible, but Tuđman replied, "Let it go, maybe I'll still need those guys." [3]
Public reactions to the murder of Alexandra and her family
The case of little Aleksandra and her family, known in the media as the Rabbit Case, nevertheless caused a lot of dust and nausea, after numerous non-governmental organizations reported on it, numerous newspapers began writing about it, and after it was repeatedly discussed on television.
According to journalist Davor Butković, Vladimir Šeks, who was the state prosecutor of the Republic of Croatia at the time of the trial of the Zec family murderers, admitted to him that he was ashamed of the Zec case, and that he felt remorse because the murderers had not been punished.[1]
Munib Suljić, Igor Mikola and Sinisa Rimac were nevertheless convicted in 2005, but not for the murder of Aleksandra Zec, but for the murder of an unknown man called Saša, actually Aleksandar Antic, in Pakracka Poljana. The longest sentence of 10 years was given to Suljić, who opened fire first, Rimac was sentenced to eight years, while Mikola was sentenced to five years in prison as an accessory to murder (he was also charged with unlawful deprivation of liberty and extortion of Miloš Ivošević, Rado Pajić and Marko Grujić).
After the verdict was pronounced, only Rimac was taken to prison because Suljić and Mikola, who were defending themselves from freedom, did not appear for the verdict. [4] Igor Mikola had been extradited to Croatia just a year earlier after serving a 27-month sentence of the prison sentence he served in Zenica prison for attempted extortion of Mladen Žulj, the owner of a gas station in Grude.[5] Nikola Hodak was sentenced to one year in prison in June 2005 without a final decision for attempted extortion.[6]
Sinisa Rimac was sentenced to 8 years in prison in 2005, but for the murder of a Serb in Pakracka Poljana in 1991.[7]
Munib Suljić died in the prison hospital on Sveti Simunska cesta in Zagreb on 25 August 2006, while serving a 12-year sentence for the murder of an unknown civilian named Saša.[8] After surrendering himself to The Hague on 1 June 2006.
Controversy surrounding the investigation
It remains to be seen today why the court was not satisfied with the testimonies of witnesses who saw Sinisa Rimac when he killed Mihajlo Zec, nor with the testimonies of those before whom Igor Mykola confessed to the murder.
No one has ever explained what was missing from the police expert reports, which proved that the weapons seized from the defendants were identical to those used in the murders, nor did the court take into account the forensic examination of the van, which undoubtedly proved that it was the vehicle in which the kidnapped Aleksandra and her mother Marija were driven.[2]
The investigation determined that the van was driven by Igor Mikola and Snježana Živanović, and there were witnesses who confirmed that it was in front of the Zec family's house immediately before and during the murder, as it then hit a parked car. [2] What happened at the police station that night remains unclear and insufficiently investigated, as some witnesses to the murder of Mihajl Zec called the police and said they saw the kidnappers stuffing a woman and child into a van.
There are allegedly written traces of this in the police station's duty book - the police informed all their patrols about this, but they did not dare stop the killers at the checkpoint below Sljeme, because they saw that they were members of Mercep's death squads. [2]
According to a large part of the public in Croatia, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia, due to its miserable formal and legal shortcomings, which a large number of reputable legal experts claim are a farcical and extremely dubious interpretation of legal provisions, is actually making a farce of justice. Thus, the Zec Case never experienced the judicial catharsis that the victims and those who suffered would like. [9]
Compensation to the surviving members of the Zec family
Little Aleksandra's surviving brother and sister, Gordana and Dušan Zec, who have been living in Banja Luka with their grandmother since 1991, sued the Croatian state through representatives Ante Nobil and Maro Mihočević. In the end, in the spring of 2004, the Sanader government agreed to a settlement and the payment of a one-time compensation of 1,500,000.00 kuna, as a kind of moral act.[2]
Initiatives to erect a monument to Aleksandra Zec
The case of Aleksandra Zec still haunts a part of the Croatian public, and there are initiatives to name a street after her, as well as those calling for a monument to be erected in her honor – a move publicly made by the writer Zoran Ferić. [10]
Source:
- Davor Butković: Cold-blooded murder, Jutarnji list, published: 24.04.2004 (accessed 11.05.2011.)
- Sanader decided: to compensate the Zec family as a moral act; Nacional.hr (accessed 11.05. 2011.)
- Did Tuđman protect the murderers of Mihajlo, Marija and Aleksandra Zec? – Vijesti.net – Index.hr (accessed 11.05. 2011.)
- Defendants guilty in Pakračka Poljana case, Index.hr, National, published: 15.9.2005. (accessed 11.05.2011.)
- Igor Mikola extradited to Croatia, Nacional, published: 28.04.2004 (accessed 11.05.2011.)
- Mesić refused to pardon Sobjeslavski and Grandić, DNEVNIK.hr, published: 19.12.2006. (accessed 11.05.2011.)
- Convicted murderer Sinisa Rimac wants to be a father, tportal.hr (accessed 11.05. 2011.)
- Munib Suljić has passed away, Nacional, published: 28.08.2006 (accessed 11.05.2011.)
- Željka Godeč: Goddess of (un)justice, Globus published on 18.01.2011. (accessed 11.05.2011.)
- Zoran Ferić: Monument to Aleksandra Zec, Nacional.hr (accessed 11.05. 2011.)
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