Croatia 1991 wartime murder suspect extradited from Australia News
Croatia 1991 wartime murder suspect extradited from Australia

[JURIST] Antun Gudelj, a Croatian man convicted in 1994 of murdering three police officials who were trying to negotiate with Serb rebels opposed to Croatian independence in 1991, was extradited from Australia to Croatia on Sunday. Gudelj, who maintains he acted alone despite popular suspicion that he acted in concert with Croatian nationalist and former President Franjo Tudejman [BBC profile], was pardoned in 1997 by a general amnesty but faces new proceedings after the Croatian Constitutional Court [official website] ordered a new trial in 2001. The killing preceded and contributed to the start of the 1991-1995 Croatian War of Independence [Wikipedia backgrounder].

Croatian trials of war crimes suspects are part of the country's bid to become a member of the European Union [EU materials]. In March 2005, the EU suspended entry talks [JURIST report] on the grounds that Croatia was failing to fully cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia [official website]. The entry talks were resumed later in October 2005 after the ICTY declared that Croatia was fully cooperating with the ICTY [JURIST report]. AP has more. AAP has local coverage.

THIS DAY @ LAW

White supremacists overthrow government in Wilmington, North Carolina

A group of white supremacists overthrew the government of Wilmington, North Carolina on November 10, 1898, killing at least dozens of Black people in the process. The city's Republican government resigned after the 500-2,000 strong white mob burned the offices of a Black-owned newspaper and terrorized black neighborhoods. The new state Democratic government passed laws in 1899 disenfranchising Black voters across North Carolina. Learn more about the 1898 Wilmington Coup.

Supreme Court limited free speech in wartime

On November 10, 1919, the US Supreme Court ruled in Abrams v. United States that the federal government could criminalize speech if it was of a type tending to bring about harmful results, in this case, resistance to the United States war effort. In a powerful dissenting opinion, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes countered that even during wartime, free speech could only be curtailed when there was clear and "present danger of immediate evil or an intent to bring it about."

Leonid Brezhnev dies

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