Vladimir Šeks (born 1 January 1943) is a Croatian lawyer and politician. He has been a representative in the

Croatian Parliament The Croatian Parliament () or the Sabor is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Croatia. Under the terms of the Constitution of Croatia, Croatian Constitution, the Sabor represents the nation, people and is vested with legislative power. ...

since the nation's independence, and has held the posts of the Speaker of the Parliament, as well as

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a Minister (government), government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to th ...

in the government. He also served as acting President of the Croatian Democratic Union and

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...

from 5 January to 30 April 2000. He graduated from the Zagreb Faculty of Law in 1966. From 1972 to 1981, he worked as a lawyer until his arrest for "anti-state actions" against communist Yugoslavia. He served 13 months in the prison at Stara Gradiška. Later, he was an attorney for dissidents, including the " Belgrade Six" (1984–85). In 1990, Šeks was one of the founders of the

Osijek Osijek () is the fourth-largest city in Croatia, with a population of 96,848 in 2021. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja ...

branch of the Croatian Democratic Union. In 1991, he was one of the main drafters of the Constitution of Croatia. In 1992, he was named the State Prosecutor of the Republic of Croatia. He was a deputy of the president of the

government of Croatia The Government of Croatia (), formally the Government of the Republic of Croatia (), commonly abbreviated to Croatian Government (), is the main executive branch of government in Croatia. It is led by the Prime Minister of Croatia, president o ...

under

Hrvoje Šarinić Hrvoje Šarinić (; 17 February 1935 – 21 July 2017) was a Croatian politician who served as Prime Minister of Croatia from 1992 to 1993. Šarinić was born in Sušak and graduated from the University of Zagreb then-Faculty of Architecture, ...

and Nikica Valentić from 1992 to 1995. Šeks served as Speaker of the Croatian Parliament from 22 December 2003 until 11 January 2008. His 25-year-old son Domagoj was found dead in Goa, India on 26 February 2005 after he was reported missing by friends a day earlier. The exact circumstances of his death were never determined. In 2009, he testified in the Branimir Glavaš trial as a witness for the defence, and his testimony was later dismissed by the presiding judge as "completely implausible", and the court rendered a guilty verdict. In 2010,

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

issued a statement that Šeks should be prosecuted based upon testimony from the Glavaš trial. In January 2011 the

Ministry of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

responded to the AI report saying their conclusions were "arbitrary and wrong" in the case of Šeks. In 1997, Šeks declined to prosecute Miro Bajramović (a former police officer), Nebojša Hodak, Munib Suljić, and Igor Mikola, four members of the "Autumn Rains" unit of

Tomislav Merčep Tomislav Merčep (28 September 1952 – 16 November 2020) was a Croatian politician and paramilitary leader during the Croatian War of Independence who was later convicted of war crimes. Early life and the Croatian War of Independence A native of ...

during the

Yugoslav wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of ...

. The men began running an elaborate detention center in Poljana Pakračka, southeast of Zagreb, where prisoners were tortured with electric shocks or doused with gasoline and burned alive. Bajramović said nearly all the prisoners were executed and buried in mass graves.Miro Bajramović profile
aimpress.ch, 7 November 1997; accessed 2 August 2015. They were also implied in the killing of the Serbian Zec family from Zagreb on 7 December 1991. Some of the men, including Bajramović, were later indicted and tried by local courts, but not the

ICTY The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribun ...

. Bajramović, who stated that his unit had killed 280 Serbian civilians in Poljana Pakračka and between 90 and 110 in Gospić, received a sentence of 12 years in prison.

Honours

* Grand Order of King Petar Krešimir IV (2008) – 3rd-highest Croatian state award and the 16th of its kind awarded since its establishment.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Seks, Vladimir 1943 births Living people Politicians from Osijek Speakers of the Croatian Parliament Representatives in the modern Croatian Parliament Croatian Democratic Union politicians Government ministers of Croatia Order of Ante Starčević recipients Deputy prime ministers of Croatia