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

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 government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president ...

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 largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

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 Stara Gradiška (, german: Altgradisch) is a village and a municipality in Slavonia, in the Brod-Posavina County of Croatia. It is located on the left bank of the river Sava, across from Gradiška in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Etymology The first w ...

. Later, he was an attorney for dissidents, including the "

Belgrade Six The Belgrade Six is the name of the group of six Serbian intellectuals arrested in Belgrade, Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; r ...

" (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 The Constitution of the Republic of Croatia ( hr, Ustav Republike Hrvatske) is promulgated by the Croatian Parliament. History While it was part of the socialist Yugoslavia, the Socialist Republic of Croatia had its own Constitution under the ...

. 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 ( 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 ...

and

Nikica Valentić Nikica Valentić (; born 24 November 1950) is a Croatian entrepreneur, lawyer and politician who served as Prime Minister of Croatia from 1993 to 1995. He is to date the youngest person to have served in that capacity, being 42 years old when taki ...

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 Branimir Glavaš (born 23 September 1956 in Osijek) is a Croatian former major general and Right-wing politics, right-wing politician. He was one of the founders of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party which was in power in the 1990s and one of ...

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 it has more than ten million members and sup ...

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

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...

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 o ...

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 in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, SFR Yugoslavia from ...

. 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. Some of the men, including Bajramović, were later indicted and tried by local courts, but not the ICTY. Bajramović, who stated that his unit had killed 280 people 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 The Grand Order of King Petar Krešimir IV ( hr, Velered kralja Petra Krešimira IV.), or more fully the Grand Order of King Petar Krešimir IV with sash and Morning Star (''Velered kralja Petra Krešimira IV. s lentom i Danicom''), is an order of ...

(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 People 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