Court rehabilitates WW2-era Chetnik leader Draza Mihailovic

B92 ^ | May 14, 2015 | B92

[Ravnagora]

BELGRADE -- The commander of the WW2-era Chetnik movement Dragoljub Draza Mihailovic has been rehabilitated by the decision of the Higher Court in Belgrade.

The process was seen by many as "historic."

This ruling reverses the judgment passed in 1946, sentencing Mihailovic to death for collaboration with the occupying Nazi forces and stripping him of all his rights as a citizen.

Mihailovic was a high ranking officer in the pre-war Yugoslav Kingdom Army, and after 1941, he headed the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland (Chetniks). During the Second World War and the occupation, a civil war was waged by Chetnik (royalist) and Partisan (communist) movements, from which the latter emerged victorious.

The court's decision to approve the request for the annulment of the judgment and rehabilitate Mihailovic is final and cannot be appealed. This decision restores all civil rights to Mihailovic.

Judge Aleksandar Tresnjev said today the court approved the request for rehabilitation and overturned the verdict of July 15, 1946 that sentenced Mihailovic to death. He was executed two days later.

The announcing of the verdict attracted a lot of attention, with a large number of citizens gathering in front of the courthouse. Among them were members of anti-fascist associations, the Ravnogorski Movement, and also activists of Women in Black, and the convicted member of Obraz Mladen Obradovic.

The process of rehabilitation began on September 16, 2010, but stalled on two occasions - once when the court awaited information about the exact date of Mihailovic's execution, and again when the Alliance of Anti-Fascists of Serbia filed criminal complaints alleging perjury against two witnesses.

The request to rehabilitate Mihailovic was first filed in 2006 by his grandson Vojislav Mihailovic, and professors from the University of Belgrade Smilja Avramov and Kosta Cavoski, the Serbian Liberal Council and the Association of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland. Later, the request was joined by some political parties and associations.

The trial was marked by public debates, and the hearings, as well as the passing of the verdict, by frequent confrontations of "Chetniks" and "Partisans" in front of the court.

During the process the court heard dozens of witnesses, mostly historians, played audio recordings from the trial and collected numerous documents.

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[Pelham]

I’ll admit I’d never seen a claim like it before either.

[Ohioan]

The State Department, basically, left the Chinese Nationalists "out to dry"; we did not finance the Communists, but did not effectively act to counter the aid that Stalin gave Mao, after Stalin seized Manchuria--then plundered some of the heavy industry there before turning over what he did not plunder to Mao.

Remember that we only started in stages to try to counter Stalin's seizure of nations, after a number of alarming developments. Meanwhile, Paton had been removed--and possibly assassinated for being anti-Communist; and Stalin had seized several Eastern European nations. (We did not really react until after Czechoslovakia fell.)

[Ohioan]

The State Department Leftists, also did a PR hatchet job on the Chinese Nationalist, which was not reversed until the Korean War, when Truman ordered the Navy to protect the Nationalists on Taiwan.

To briefly comment on the main theme of the thread, Mihailovic was the true Serbian loyalist. It is about time that they honored his memory.

It is largely lost on the current scene, but he commanded the guerrilla forces loyal to King Peter, the teen aged Monarch, who courageously fought against the German invasion--rushing to rescue Mussolini from humiliation, after the Italians attacked Greece, and were effectively counter-attacked.

[Ohioan]

Not well put,

It was Hitler's forces who were rushing to save Mussolini from humiliation--obviously not King Peter's who resisted bravely against the Nazi demand that they be allowed through Yugoslavia.

[eleni121]

About time....no matter... he is already a heroic legend among freedom lovers everywhere.

[LjubivojeRadosavljevic]

Well, Tito (i.e. his lieutenants) also collaborated with Nazis albeit nothing really came out of their discussions.

That said, the primary point is that most people do not understand that there was a civil war going on in that region within a broader (larger) war - of course that broader war being WWII.