Renewed Clemency Appeal by Convicted War Criminal Artukovic Is Turned Down
Another appeal for clemency by Andrija Artukovic, under death sentence for war crimes when Croatia was a Nazi puppet state, has been rejected, the state news agency Tanjug said Tuesday.
Artukovic, 87, who had been living in Seal Beach, was extradited from the United States in February and tried for crimes against humanity and war crimes in connection with the deaths of more than 700,000 Jews, Serbs and Gypsies between 1941 and 1945. He was convicted and sentenced on May 14.
The latest rejection of clemency came from Yugoslavia’s collective presidency. Earlier, two appeals to the Supreme Court were rejected.
A legal source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Artukovic still had the right to ask that the death sentence be indefinitely postponed on grounds of debility.
The defense argued during the proceedings that Artukovic was unfit to stand trial because of age and senility.
The death sentence here is normally carried out by firing squad. No execution date has been announced.
Yugoslavia charged that Artukovic, as interior minister in the Nazi puppet state of Croatia from 1941 to 1945, implemented policies that sent concentration camp inmates to their deaths. He also was charged with involvement in four murders.
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