Ivan Milas (18 October 1939 – 29 July 2011) was a Croatian lawyer and politician. Milas was born in the village of Zmijavci near Imotski in Zagora, and graduated from the Faculty of Law at the

University of Zagreb The University of Zagreb ( hr, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, ; la, Universitas Studiorum Zagrabiensis) is the largest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of ...

. Milas was close to

Marko Veselica Marko Veselica (January 9, 1936 – February 17, 2017 in Zagreb) was a Croatian politician, economist and university professor. During the Croatian Spring, Marko Veselica developed a reputation of being a Croatian nationalist. He was close to Iv ...

and was active in the Croatian Spring in the early 1970s. In 1972, the authorities of

communist Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yugo ...

charged Milas with "actions against the state", arrested and spent six months in jail awaiting trial. He was released to prepare his defense, and subsequently fled to

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

where he received the status of a refugee. Yugoslavia sought his apprehension, which Austrian courts denied. He was tried ''in absentia'' in Yugoslavia and received a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence. In 1988 Milas met the Croatian historian and politician Franjo Tuđman and in August 1989 joined his newly formed Croatian Democratic Union. Milas received a passport to return to Croatia in February 1990 and was elected to the

Croatian Parliament The Croatian Parliament ( hr, Hrvatski sabor) or the Sabor is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of Croatia. Under the terms of the Croatian Constitution, the Sabor represents the people and is vested with legislative power. The Sab ...

in its first democratic elections. During the first phase of the Croatian War of Independence between the summer of 1991 and the spring of 1992, Milas served as the Deputy Minister of Defence and Deputy Minister of Justice. Milas was reelected in the 1992 election, and served as the Minister of Justice from June 6 to August 12, 1992 and was later vice-president in the

Croatian Government The Government of Croatia ( hr, Vlada Hrvatske), formally the Government of the Republic of Croatia ( hr, Vlada Republike Hrvatske), commonly abbreviated to Croatian Government ( hr, hrvatska Vlada), is the main executive branch of government ...

, 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, C ...

. On May 28, 1995, President Tuđman awarded him with the

Grand Order of King Dmitar Zvonimir The Grand Order of King Dmitar Zvonimir ( hr, Velered kralja Dmitra Zvonimira s lentom i Danicom), or more fully the Grand Order of King Dmitar Zvonimir with sash and Morning Star (''Velered kralja Dmitra Zvonimira s lentom i Danicom''), is an Ord ...

. Also in May 1995, the function of the Keeper of the State Seal ( hr, Čuvar državnog pečata) was created, and President Tuđman named Milas to the position on May 6, 1995, where he remained until February 1, 2000. no other person was named to the position after Milas. Milas was elected to Sabor again in the October 1995 election. Between 1996 and 2000 Milas was a member of the Council of the

Croatian National Bank The Croatian National Bank ( hr, Hrvatska narodna banka or HNB; ) is the central bank of the Republic of Croatia. HNB was established by the Constitution of Croatia which was passed by the Parliament of Croatia on 21 December 1990. Its main res ...

. He was last elected to the Croatian Parliament in the

2000 Croatian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Croatia on 3 January 2000 to elect members of the Chamber of Representative. They were the first elections to be held after the expiration of a full four-year term of the previous Chamber of Representatives. Th ...

, where he served until late 2003, when he retired from politics. Milas gained considerable notoriety in the Croatian public after he publicly expressed his opinion that in the West, brain is valued in kilograms. Ivan Milas died in Zmijavci at the age of 72.

References

External links

Ivan Milas - 4th assembly of the Croatian Parliament
{{DEFAULTSORT:Milas, Ivan 1939 births 2011 deaths Representatives in the modern Croatian Parliament Croatian Democratic Union politicians Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb alumni Justice ministers of Croatia People from Imotski