Croatian Courts: Kafkaesque
Croatia is now in line for European Union membership: Slovenia has withdrawn its objections over the border dispute, and the wheels are in motion to bring the country’s debt levels in line with European standards.
However, a recent miscarriage of justice that condemned a man to 40 years in prison on the flimsiest of evidence raises serious doubts as to whether Croatia’s legal system is governed by standards corresponding with the guarantees of the European Convention of Human Rights. The bizarre two-year criminal case has been described by observers as “appalling,” and symptomatic of deeply rooted problems in both the code and the court system that will need to be addressed for Croatia to meet European standards of human rights.
